


At Stake

by lucidscreamer



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: (Not Atem/Yugi), Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Romance Novel, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Animal Death, Atem is the least angst-ridden vampire ever, Bed & Breakfast, Blood Drinking, Drama & Romance, Harlequin, Humor, Innkeeper Yugi, M/M, Mild Language, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Non-Explicit Sex, Novella, POV Alternating, Stalking, Vampire Atem, Vampire Bites, Vampire Politics, Vampire Sex, Yugi is no damsel in distress, past Atem/male character (minor), vampire yami
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 10:34:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 29,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19227412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucidscreamer/pseuds/lucidscreamer
Summary: Fleeing from a very personal danger in Domino City, Yugi encounters Yami Hunter, a handsome man with a dark secret and a darker past than even he knows.Together, they must solve the puzzle of Yami's past (and the golden puzzle in Yugi's keeping), fend off stalkers, ghosts from Yami's past, and hostile vampires; and, oh yeah, find a way to save the world from ravening Shadows.If they're lucky, they'll also find time to fall in love...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is the creation and property of Kazuki Takahashi. 
> 
> Original vampire lore and elements are the creation of and sole property of Lucidscreamer.
> 
> This has been on FF.net for ages; I honestly though I had posted it here, too.
> 
>  Originally published 6/22/2011 (up to chapter 11). Everything after chapter 11 will be posted here on AO3 and will be all-new.
> 
> Pairing: Yami/Yugi (Puzzleshipping); minor mentions of past Yami/other (canon) male character; mentions of one-sided Yugi/OMC
> 
> Notes, Warnings, and Potential Triggers: Depictions of stalking, vampirism (including blood-drinking, death of prey animals), violence, and some crude language; contains non-explicit, sensual scenes between two consenting adult males. Plus, my usual sarcastic humor.
> 
>  
> 
> "Christmas Cravings" (a novella by Maureen Child, published by Silhouette Nocturne in the anthology "Holiday with a Vampire") loosely inspired this story. Specifics of the story, including the details of how vampirism works, the finer points of the plot, original characters, and the snarky humor all belong to me.
> 
> Acknowledgements: Thanks to Tex-chan for all the pre- and beta-reading, and supportive comments (on chapters 1-11). Thanks also to everyone who took the time to comment on the early, rough draft chapters (1-4) on LJ.

As consciousness crept back over him, the first thing Yami became aware of was that he was face down in something cold and wet. It took his recovering brain a second or two to put a name to the cold-and-wet thing: snow. The second thing he noticed was the metaphorical kettle drum beating at the base of his skull, attempting to pound it apart. Automatically, he lifted one hand and felt for an injury. His questing fingers found a swelling knot, tender to the touch, and a chill dampness matting his hair to his skull. A quick sniff told him that the stuff in his hair was blood.

 _His_ blood. He had been _bleeding_.

What the hell had happened to him?

A groan of effort escaped his clenched teeth as he heaved himself over onto his back. His muscles felt rubbery and weak, reluctant to obey his demands. Strained and slow as it was, the movement set off a fresh round of the _1812 Overture_ in his head. Eyes clenched shut, he lay in the snow, panting as he fought a wave of nausea that took him completely by surprise. He hadn't felt like this in... Frankly, he couldn't remember _ever_ feeling like this, at least not since the night he Changed.

That thought, unpleasant as it was, brought up another concern. He had been attacked, _knocked unconscious_ , two occurrences rare enough to set off every mental alarm he possessed. Danger lurked nearby and he had been oblivious to the threat, too lost in his own memories to remain vigilant. Thanks to his carelessness, he was injured, vulnerable, and out in the open. His gaze swept over his surroundings in an automatic threat assessment. Nothing moved but a few tree branches stirred by the wind. The wind itself brought him only the scent of snow and his own drying blood. The fresh powder covering the ground seemed undisturbed, only his own footprints having broken the crust on the knee-deep drifts.

A new thought occurred to him, and he forced his eyes open to squint at the sky. It was gray and gravid with clouds, but a tell-tale strand of pearly light along the horizon signaled the approach of dawn.

His ass was toast if he didn't get it off the ground and under shelter before the sun rose.

With renewed determination, Yami struggled to get his feet under him. He made it to one knee before the pain in his head dropped him face-first into the snow again. He cursed under his breath. Why hadn't he taken the time to feed _before_ coming to the house, rather than thinking he would hunt once he arrived? It had been foolish to push his limits so far, to take such an unnecessary risk. He had been lazy and look where had it gotten him: about to be flambéed by the sunrise. The fact that he was going to die with an empty stomach just added insult to injury.

"Hey! Are you all right?"

At the sound of the unfamiliar voice, Yami's head snapped around. His nostrils flared, but the speaker was downwind and too far away for Yami to catch a scent. His gaze locked instantly onto the short figure floundering toward him across the snowy lawn. For a second, there appeared to be two of him, but Yami blinked and his eyes refocused on a single young man with bed-head and clothes that looked as if he'd flung them on in the dark. His heavy parka gaped open as he jogged closer, revealing the flannel pajama jacket underneath. When he bent over Yami, the scent of soap and blood and warm human male made Yami's mouth water. Truly, he was a fool to have let himself go so long between meals. A hungry vampire was a dangerous vampire - to himself, if nothing else, as his hunger had clearly affected his ability to keep himself from becoming a crispy, sun-baked vamp-kebab.

"Are you hurt? What are you doing out here?"

Not to mention that his thoughts were running in circles, and he had no idea what to say to the human who was peering down at him with concern etched on his face. Yami wondered at what point he had lost his mind, because it had clearly happened and he'd failed to make note of it. Maybe he should just lie here and let the sun finish what his unknown assailant had started. It might be doing himself a favor. Were vampires his age prone to senility?

"All right. It's pretty obvious you're _not_ okay." The human seemed to take Yami's lack of a response to mean that he _couldn't_ respond. "Let's get you up from there and out of the cold, and then I'll call for an ambulance."

Frowning, Yami blinked up at him. "I don't need an ambulance."

The human gaped at him. "What do you mean you don't need an ambulance? You're lying in a heap of bloody snow, and I mean that literally. _Of course_ , you need an ambulance."

"No." Yami made another try at getting up. It was no more successful than his previous attempt. He flopped back onto the snow and lay there like an overturned turtle. The loss of his dignity was almost worse than the continuing pain in his head. "I _don't_."

" _Yes_. You _do_." The human enunciated each word with the kind of clear emphasis usually reserved for speaking to the cognition-impaired. "You can't even stand up!"

For some reason, that made Yami determined to prove the human wrong. He made it as far as his knees, where he had to pause while the world took a merry spin around his head. When it stopped, and he could catch his breath, he cast a glance at the horizon. Cresting the tree-tops, the sun spread its destructive rays across the winter sky. In another minute or so, the pale light would be bright enough to set him aflame. Already, he could feel his skin heating up as his blood reacted. Soon, it would literally boil in his veins.

Decades had passed since the last time Yami had panicked, but this was clearly a day of firsts. He shot an urgent look at his would-be rescuer. "I need to get inside."

"Yes," the man agreed. "Inside an _ambulance_ , which I will call for you once we get to the house."

Yami bit back the automatic retort that sprang to his lips. He could argue with the human later, provided the sun hadn't reduced him to a large pile of smoking ash, which was looking more likely by the second. The tops of the evergreens blazed with light. "Just get me inside. _Now_. "

"All right." The man grabbed Yami's arms and hauled him to his feet. "C'mon, let's see if you can walk."

They quickly discovered that Yami couldn't, at least not without help. His legs refused to support him and his spinning head meant he listed drunkenly to one side. The human was at least a head shorter than Yami, but surprisingly strong for his size. He wrapped his arm around Yami's waist and took Yami's weight on his shoulder. With the human supporting him and doing most of the steering, they shuffled toward the distant farmhouse. The thick snow dragged at Yami's feet, slowing their progress. All the while, the deadly sun rose higher in the sky.

Feeling his skin grow hot, Yami forced his eyes open. They stung, watering from the brightness. Because the universe clearly hated him, the sun had found a break in the cloud cover and the light bounced up at him from the snow. He knew he couldn't make it to the house in time, but he spotted a closer alternative. "Take me to the barn."

"What?" The human turned a disbelieving look on him. "Why-?"

"Just do it!"

"Okay, okay. _Sheesh_. No need to get--" The human broke off and sniffed the air. "Do you smell something burning?"

 _Shit_. Yami looked down at himself. Wisps of smoke rose from the exposed skin on his hands, and he could feel his face and neck blistering. He could almost hear the dark interior of the barn calling to him. "The barn. Now!"

With the human half-carrying him, they staggered through the open doors of the barn just as the sky flooded with light. Even made gray and muted by the clouds, the sunlight reflected off the snow, deadly rays seeking out the vampire with unerring aim. Yami flinched away from the questing death-beams, stumbling into the welcoming shadows. They soothed his wounds, but did little to ease the weakness pervading his limbs. To fully heal and regain his strength, he needed blood.

His gaze wandered to the sweet-smelling meal standing in the doorway, back-lit by the dawn. Only the threat of the sunlight kept Yami from lunging forward and sinking his fangs into the human's throat.

He groaned and threw his head back, deliberately banging it into the wall behind him. The renewed pain made him hiss, but it also knocked some sense into his hunger-addled brain. _Friend, not food!_ (Well, okay, more like " _stranger_ , not food," but it was the "not food" part that was the important thing to remember.) His Good Samaritan didn't deserve to die for his charity.

"Okay, I just pinched myself. And it hurt like hell, which proves I'm not dreaming, so I'd really like to know what's going on." The human paced in the doorway. "I mean, I woke up because I thought I heard something outside and when I went to investigate, I found you lying there, bleeding all over the place and... Who are you, anyway? What were you doing on my front lawn?"

That made Yami squint open one eye and glare at him. " _Your_ lawn? Funny, you don't look like Arthur Hawkins. Last time I checked, this was _his_ bed-and-breakfast."

Blood suffused the human's round cheeks, making him look even more delectable and making Yami's mouth flood with saliva. Damn it, this was ridiculous. He was too old to be reacting to a simple blush like this. So help him, if he lived through this, he was never going so long without a snack.

"Uh, it still does. Belong to Professor Hawkins, I mean. The B&B." The man raked his fingers through his sleep-tousled bangs and looked sheepish. "I'm sort of inn-sitting for him while he's in Egypt with my grandpa."

"Oh."

"Yeah. He was just going to close down the B&B for the month, but he said he was expecting a regular, and he didn't want to disappoint his favorite customer. So, since I was already staying here, I offered to run the place while he's gone." The human's lips turned upward in a faint smile. "I'm Yugi, by the way. Yugi Mutou."

It took Yami's blood-starved brain a few seconds to process all this information. Finally, the mental file box marked "manners" threw out a helpful reminder. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Yami Hunter. I'm the guest Arthur was expecting."


	2. Chapter 2

So, this was Professor Hawkins' favorite customer? At first glance, he seemed unimpressive, huddled in the gloom against the wall. His clothing (jeans, a button-down shirt, and a short leather jacket) looked unsuited to the weather, and that was _before_ he'd gotten wet from falling in the snow. Tangled dark hair framed a face pinched with pain. He held his lean body hunched over, shying from the light.

"Okay. So, what were you doing out in the yard, Mr. Hunter? For that matter, how'd you get here? I didn't see a car." Yugi scowled. "More importantly, how did you get hurt?"

Yami's brow furrowed, as if he was finding it difficult to think. "I got here the same way I do every year. I hiked up from town. It's a personal tradition. My luggage should be arriving later, by courier. I was... daydreaming, I suppose. And then something struck the back of my head and I must have lost consciousness. I woke up right before you found me."

At this indication of someone lurking out of sight on the property, Yugi felt a tremor of dread run through his body. He crossed his arms in an instinctive, self-protective gesture. "Did you see the person who hit you?"

"No." Yami sounded irritated by the admission, as if it were a personal failing. "As I said, I was distracted and whoever it was struck from behind."

Taking a deep breath and forcing his racing heartbeat to calm, Yugi reminded himself that the attack might have nothing to do with the events that had driven him from Domino City. Even if it wasn't, he didn't like the idea of someone assaulting one of the professor's guests. "After we take care of your injury, I'll call the sheriff."

"Don't, not on my account. I'm annoyed that someone got the drop on me, but the only real injury is to my pride. Besides, they're probably long gone by now."

"I'd feel better if I reported this." Especially if it _was_ related to the events of the past few months and not some weird coincidence. He took another deep breath, exhaled it on a sigh. "Look, we'll worry about that later. For now, let's get you into the house so I can take a look at your injury. You may need stitches."

"I'm fine!"

Despite the sharpness with which he interrupted, Yami didn't look fine. In fact, he looked like a living illustration of the opposite of "fine." His skin appeared bloodless, his eyes squinted against the light, and deep stress lines framed his mouth. When he prodded the back of his head, his fingers shook with a visible tremor. Yugi suspected that the other man had, at the very least, a mild concussion.

"Yeah, okay. We clearly have different definitions of the word 'fine', because I'm not using the one that means 'about to pass out.'" Yugi frowned at his uncooperative guest. "You're clearly not fine. You're _bleeding_."

"The bleeding's stopped." Yami held out the hand he'd been using to prod his injury. "See? No blood."

"Awesome," Yugi said, meaning the exact opposite. "However, that doesn't change the fact that you look like you're about to face-plant into the floorboards."

Yami opened his mouth as if to argue, but instead flinched back against the wall with a pained cry as the sun broke through the clouds again. The sudden influx of sunlight allowed Yugi a better look at the other man, and the livid damage marring the other's face shocked him. From Yami's brow to his shirt collar, one side of his face was shriveled and puckered, the skin red and blackened around the edges as if someone had taken a blowtorch to his flesh.

"Oh, my god! How did that happen? You look like you've been microwaved!" Concern overriding his habitual reticence, Yugi dashed across the space separating them and tried to pull Yami toward the open doors. "C'mon, I'm definitely calling for help. You need a burn center."

"I'm _fine_." Yami jerked back into his shrinking halo of darkness. Pale gold rays crept across the floor and speared through the gaping cracks in the walls and roof, forcing him further into the shadows. "I'll just stay here for awhile."

"Here? Are you nuts?" Yugi boggled, first at Yami and then at Yami's proposed shelter.

The barn was old and dilapidated. Some of the boards were missing from the walls, and there were yawning holes in the roof. The professor mostly used it to store his lawnmower and old holiday decorations, including a scarily cheerful plastic Santa and the decapitated reindeer lurking near Yami in his corner. In its current state, the barn wasn't suited for much else, certainly not for protecting a couple of guys from the cruel winter chill.

Shivering, Yugi pulled his parka closer around him and eyed Yami's inadequate jacket. The poor guy must be freezing. Yugi couldn't leave him out here in an unheated building in the middle of January, especially when whoever had attacked him might be waiting for the opportunity to strike again. Just the thought of it made Yugi shiver.

"Go back in the house before you catch your death... of cold."

"And leave you alone out here?" It came out a bit shrill with disbelief. "I don't know what kind of person you think I am, but let me assure you I'm not the kind who wants to explain to Professor Hawkins why I let his favorite guest turn into a Popsicle."

"Look--"

"No, _you_ look. Despite what you seem to believe, you do not have anti-freeze in your veins. You are coming into the house if I have to drag you there myself!"

Yami's gaze strayed to the doorway, glowing with morning light. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"I can be very stubborn."

"I'm beginning to see that." Yami heaved a sigh that sounded heavy with resignation. "All right, you win. Just... Do me a favor, first?"

"That depends. What is it?"

"I have a slight ... _problem_ with sunlight. An allergy, if you will." Yami edged closer to Manic Santa and refused to look Yugi in the eye. "So, if you're going to insist on having your way, could you at least bring me a blanket or something so I don't burst into flames on my way across the yard?"

"Are you serious?"

One finely-shaped eyebrow lifting, Yami tore his gaze from the spreading patches of sunlight and glanced at him. "Do I _look_ like I'm joking?"

Since Yugi had yet to see the other man so much as crack a smile, the answer to that question had to be a resounding _no_. "Fine. I'll be right back. Um, wait here. "

Yami snorted. "Like I have a choice."

-o0o-

When Yugi returned to the barn, Yami was gone. Panic slammed through his chest. What if the assailant had returned to finish the job? He ran to the center of the junk-crowded space and shouted, " _Mr. Hunter_?"

"Over here."

Spinning around at the quiet words, Yugi spotted Yami backed into a tiny wedge of shadow. Sunlight slanted through the holes in the roof, forming the bars of a virtual cage around his cringing form.

"I brought you a quilt." Yugi held out the patchwork offering. "I heard a weather report while I was in the house. There's a snow storm on the way. Are you sure you don't want to get medical attention before it gets here? We may get snowed in, if it's as bad as they say it's going to be, and you lost a lot of blood."

"Head wounds always look worse than they are. I'm fine."

The guy was beginning to sound like a broken record. Mentally throwing up his hands in defeat, Yugi tossed the quilt at him. "Cover up with that and let's get you up to the house before the storm hits."

The sun chose that moment to duck behind the thickening clouds. Yami threw the quilt over his head and dashed past Yugi, heading toward the house. Yugi stared after him. _Ooo-kaay_ , he thought, and trudged after the B&B's newest (and, in Yugi's opinion, strangest) guest.

He had the feeling it was going to be a long day.

-o0o-

Yami stood on the front porch and waited impatiently for Yugi to invite him inside. He had used up most of his reserves making the dash across the yard and didn't know how much longer he could stay upright. As Yugi brushed past him, Yami was far too aware of the heat of the human's body and the siren call of his heartbeat as it pumped all-too-tantalizing blood through his veins.

Yugi gave him an odd look before opening the door and slipping inside. Turning, he gave Yami an even odder look. "For your information, the porch does not count as 'inside the house.' Get in here so I can at least clean and bandage your wounds."

That was enough of an invitation to allow Yami to cross the threshold. He stumbled inside and followed Yugi into the living room. Weariness overwhelming him, Yami discarded the quilt and collapsed onto the nearest horizontal surface. Providentially, it turned out to be the sofa. Eyes closed, he listened to the human bustle about.

"Let me take a look at your head." Yugi prodded him, trying to get him to sit up.

It took far more effort than it should have just to raise his chin and squint against the glare coming through the windows. He forced his eyes to focus on the human, but had a bit more difficulty with the mind/conversation correlation. "...What?"

"I knew I should've insisted on getting you to a doctor." Yugi perched on the arm of the sofa and hauled Yami up by the shoulders. "You have a concussion."

"I do not." Yami growled as Yugi began tugging at his hair. "Stop that!"

"Hold still. I'm not going to hurt you." Seeking the injury, Yugi's fingers carded through Yami's hair. After a moment, Yugi released his hold. Yami jerked free, shooting a glare over his shoulder. "You've got quite a bump, but it looks like the bleeding has stopped."

"Like I said, I'm _fine_." Yami was in no mood to be gracious. His stomach twisted with hunger. The need to hunt burned at the back of his throat, and his gums ached as his fangs tried to descend. Day weighed on him like an anchor, reminding him why his kind normally slept during the sunlit hours. His thoughts felt sluggish and disjointed, his mind fighting his instincts.

With a start, he realized that Yugi had been speaking and was now watching him with the expectant air of one awaiting a reply. Annoyed by his own drifting attention, Yami grated, "What did you say?"

"I asked if you were hungry." Yugi's expression danced between concern and irritation. "I thought I'd start breakfast. Is there anything special you'd like?"

"No." Not that Yugi could provide, unless he was willing to offer himself on a silver platter. Yami cut that thought off before it could go somewhere he would regret. No matter how delicious he smelled, Yugi was _not_ food.

"I could get you something to drink, then. Are you thirsty?"

You have no _idea_. Yami found himself staring at the pulse beating at the base of Yugi's throat and tore his gaze away before the temptation became too great. "No." And then, belatedly, "Thank you."

"You're really not a morning person, are you?"

The question sounded rhetorical, so Yami ignored it. He slid back down on the sofa and folded his arm over his eyes, too weary to think of a retort.

"I'm at least making coffee." Preternatural hearing caught every muttered word as Yugi headed for the kitchen. "Maybe _you_ don't need it, but I can't deal with this level of weird without copious amounts of caffeine."

Under other circumstances, Yami might have found that amusing. As things stood, he burrowed deeper into the cushions and wished he had skipped this year's visit. Maybe it was time to stop. At first, he had returned here to punish himself for surviving when his family had not. Over the years, he had grown to realize that such self-indulgent wallowing dishonored the memory of his loved ones. Now when he came here, he tried to remember the good more than the bad.

Something poked his arm, demanding his attention. The persistent human was back.

Yami shifted his forearm and cracked open an eye, only to find a bright yellow smiley-face leering at him from point-blank range. Instinct made him hiss and jolt upright. Yugi yelped and the offending smiley-face (and the mug it adorned) went flying. The two men gaped at the broken mug and resultant puddle of coffee now decorating the Turkish rug in front of the sofa.

Pointing at the spreading stain, Yugi glared at him. "That is _so_ going on your bill."

Yami sighed.


	3. Chapter 3

Almost before Yugi left the room to get carpet-cleaning supplies, Yami had put thoughts of the human out of his mind. It was too difficult to maintain mental focus when the combination of fatigue, blood loss, and hunger was playing tug-of-war with his mind. His thoughts drifted aimlessly from images of the hunt (warm prey and warmer blood, thick and soothing as it filled him) to the faces of his lost family.

Without warning, new images intruded on his reverie. Places at once strange and familiar - _endless vistas of sand, a wide ribbon of brown water reflecting the hot sun, a sweltering chamber hewn from stone_ -danced before his mind's eye. _In the stone chamber, flickering lamplight illuminated strange paintings on the walls. Voices rose from the silence, chanting arcane words in a language long forgotten but somehow familiar. Darkness boiled up from the four corners of the room, filling it as water flooded from a burst dam. Cold filled his chest as the chanting turned to screams_.

Yami's voice joined the memories as a cry burst from his throat in the here-and-now, and he leaped from his place on the sofa. The front of his shirt smoked as the skin beneath it, as well as the skin of his face and hands, began to blister.

Stupidly, he had forgotten about the sun.

Breaking through the clouds, golden light streamed through the wide windows. Heavy drapes hung to each side of the windows, leaving only the thin, transparent sheers to cover the glass. Sunlight flooded the room, chasing away the sheltering gloom.

Inhuman agility took Yami from a standing leap to crouching against the far wall. Tendrils of smoke drifted up from his exposed skin. His shirt, plastered to his chest where the skin beneath it had burned, smoldered. His eyes stung and his fully-extended fangs pricked at his lower lip. Every muscle tense and twanging, every sense alert, Yami had shed his human façade. He was a wild creature, cornered and dangerous, his only instinct to survive.

Nostrils flaring, he jerked his head toward the doorway as unsuspecting prey entered the room.

-o0o-

Cleaning supplies in hand, Yugi trotted back to the living room. He had promised Professor Hawkins that he would take care of things at the bed-and-breakfast, and not only had one of the guests gotten hurt upon arrival, but he had spilled coffee all over the professor's favorite rug. Yep, Yugi was off to a flying start. Maybe for an encore he could burn down the barn and give all the guests food poisoning. Good thing this innkeeper gig was only temporary.

"Just let me clean this up and I'll check you in, Mr. Hunt-" The words died in his throat as Yugi got a good look at the other man and his mouth fell open in shock. Forgotten, the bottle of cleaning fluid hit the floor by his foot.

Yami Hunter crouched with his back to the far wall, his hands literally digging into the plaster as if his grip were the only thing keeping him from lunging at Yugi. The sound of Yugi's voice made his lips peel back in a silent snarl which revealed sharp fangs that had no business residing in a human mouth. Fresh blisters covered his hands and face, and his shirt looked as if he'd set it on fire. His eyes (oh, god, _his eyes_ ) were a fiendish red and locked onto Yugi with all the predatory intent of a starving lion eying a gazelle buffet.

"Oh, _shit_." It came out as a feeble gasp, rather than as the bold curse Yugi intended.

He wanted to run, but something told him that would be signing his death warrant. Sheer terror locked his limbs in place, and a familiar mantra (honed through years of school bullying) repeated in his brain: _Whatever you do, don't show weakness._ _Whatever you do, don't act like_ prey.

Dropping the roll of paper towels, Yugi held up his hands as if the gesture could ward off the predator his guest had become. "Mr. Hunter... _Yami_. You don't want to do this."

Yami cocked his head to one side, as if unaccustomed to potential meals that talked back. Maybe the novelty would save him, Yugi thought, and then wondered if the shock had driven him mad. "Yami, listen to me. I'm a friend, remember? I helped you. You don't want to hurt me."

Too slowly for Yugi's peace of mind, but fast enough to give him hope, the predatory focus drained from Yami's red eyes. His lips relaxed, hiding his fangs, and an expressionless mask settled over his damaged features. He blinked, a slow, almost reptilian movement, as if the action took a lot of thought. Between one shuttering of his lids and the next, his eyes reverted to their normal color and gazed at Yugi with recognition rather than hunger.

"...Yugi?" The deep voice sounded broken and hoarse, as if speaking cost him an enormous effort. Yami slammed the back of his head against the wall, the muscles in his neck and arms standing out in harsh relief as he held himself rigid.

" _Leave_." The terse command hissed through Yami's clenched teeth. " _Now_."

Every instinct Yugi possessed screamed at him to obey. But his gaze lingered on Yami's burns before shifting to the open drapes. If he ran, what would happen to Yami when he lost his meager spot of shade? "If I do, the sun will kill you."

Yami fixed him with a burning glare, flecks of crimson glowing in his dark eyes. "If you don't, _I_ will kill _you_."

Yugi could almost believe it. But it was clear from Yami's rigid posture and straining muscles that, while Yami's body might want to attack, his mind was fighting it. Still, it was probably not a good idea to tempt fate. Mind working quickly to find a solution to the dilemma, Yugi started toward the nearest window. If he closed the curtains-

"Don't!"

Freezing in mid-step, Yugi shot a startled glance at Yami. The thin sliver of darkness had shrunk even further, forcing him flat against the wall. "Why _not_?"

"The sun--"

"--is about ten seconds from turning you into a crispy critter! Flambéed guest isn't any better than Popsicled guest on the scale of Things I Don't Want to Have to Explain to Professor Hawkins." Past a certain stress level, Yugi got sarcastic. It was a form of mental defense that had served him well over the years. (Of course, it had also gotten him beaten up on more than one occasion. He just hoped it wasn't also about to get him _eaten_.)

Yami was staring at him again. This time, his expression held fewer shades of "inspecting the tasty morsel" and more "why the hell is my entrée threatening me with a wet noodle?" (Yugi just hoped the WTF factor would keep Yami distracted long enough for Yugi to save his life.)

"Look. You don't want to die in a blaze of whatever's the opposite of glory, do you?"

Appearing stunned, Yami shook his head.

"Good. Just so we're clear-" Yugi tried to make his voice firm. "- _I_ don't want to die either, in a blaze of anything, glory or otherwise. So, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to close the curtains and you're going to not kill me. Deal?"

"Too dangerous. I can't--" Yami's fingers dug deeper gouges into the wall. He shook his head. "I _can't_."

Was he saying he couldn't guarantee Yugi's safety without the sun as a barrier between them? Well, that sucked. (If Yugi had his way, it'd be the _only_ thing that sucked.) They didn't have much time; Yugi could see curls of smoke rising from Yami's exposed skin. Any second now, he could go up like a pile of kindling. Yugi's gaze darted around the room - the too-bright, too free-of-convenient-hiding-places room.

Then he remembered something that Professor Hawkins had showed him, something the older man had known that Yugi, with his affinity for puzzles and games, would enjoy - the hidden room where the professor kept his wine collection.

With a mental "eureka!", Yugi leaped toward the bookcase opposite the windows. He tapped the books in the coded pattern, grabbed the leather-bound copy of Plato's _Timaeus,_ and pulled. Latches clicked and the shelves swung out on concealed hinges, revealing a windowless, climate-controlled room about the size of a generous walk-in closet. Yami would have to pass directly through the sunlight to reach safety, but once inside, he would be completely surrounded by darkness.

He watched Yami's expression as the other man (creature?) figured it out for himself. Yami's glance shifted between the windows and Yugi. Taking his meaning, Yugi stepped away from the now-open door and back into the light, leaving the way into the secret room clear. He could see it on Yami's face as the other steeled himself for further exposure to the sun. Then, almost faster than Yugi's eyes could follow, he flashed across the room, knocking over a lamp which shattered as it struck the floor in his wake. The darkness swallowed Yami as he disappeared into the chamber behind the bookcase.

The stench of burning meat filled the air. Yugi raced across the room and slammed _Timaeus_ back into place, sealing Yami in the darkness. Fingers clenching on the spine of the book, Yugi rested his forehead against the shelf and gave some serious consideration to passing out. Only his raging curiosity (and some vague, possibly misplaced, notion of his duty as an innkeeper, however temporary) kept him from calling it quits, packing his bags, and getting the hell out of Dodge.

When his legs turned to Jell-O, Yugi sagged to the floor, wrapped his arms around his torso, and very carefully did _not_ have a nervous breakdown. Not even a little one. After a few calming breaths, he slid around to lean his back against the shelves. His mind raced. What the hell had Professor Hawkins gotten him into? He'd known Yami Hunter was coming to stay at the B&B. Did he know what Yami was?

After an indeterminate amount of time, Yami's voice broke the silence. It was somewhat muffled by the bookcase between them, but Yugi could still make out the words without too much trouble.

"Thank you--" Yami paused, as if the words didn't come easily. "--for saving my life."

Yugi took a deep breath and held it while he considered his options. Was he actually going to do this? It only took a few seconds to realize that, _yes_ , he was. _Dammit_. One day, his need to _know_ things, to solve every puzzle with which fate presented him, really _was_ going to be the death of him. He exhaled an explosive sigh and thumped the back of his head against the shelf behind him. "Thanks for not ending mine."

This time the silence felt strained. When Yami spoke again, his voice was thick with remorse. "I'm sorry I put you in danger."

Yugi thought about this. "Did you do it on purpose?"

"No."

"Okay." Yugi scrubbed both hands over his face. "I forgive you."

"You shouldn't."

"Probably not, but it's the way I'm wired. Ask anybody, they'll tell you I'm a pushover about this sort of thing."

"...People often try to kill you?"

"You'd be surprised." Yugi gave a humorless chuckle. "And you're not exactly 'people'. What are you, really?"

"You mean it isn't obvious?"

It kind of _was_ , but the biggest portion of Yugi's brain refused to accept the obvious explanation. Professor Hawkins' pet theories about the lost city of Atlantis? No problem. His own grandfather's quest to find a legendary lost pharaoh? Piece of cake. Accepting that the man he was speaking to was an undead creature of the night? That might take a little work.

"I know what you looked like. I've read Bram Stoker and I've seen plenty of movies. But this isn't a book or a movie, and things like... _that_ just don't exist in real life."

Yami's voice was so quiet that Yugi strained to hear it. "Things like... vampires."

And there was the word he'd been trying to avoid. _Double dammit_. Heart pounding so hard he could almost feel the blood rushing through his veins, Yugi clenched his eyes shut and held on to his denial for a few precious seconds longer. But he'd seen Yami's eyes and fangs (honest-to-god _fangs_ ) and the burns from the sun, and he'd never been very good at lying to himself. One of these days, he really needed to work on developing that particular skill.

Vampires. Why did it have to be _vampires_? Yugi thumped his head against the shelf again, wishing he could either knock the world back on its axis or himself unconscious, whichever would set reality to rights. Yami was a vampire. A big-as-life, undead vampire who wanted to suck Yugi dry like a human-sized Capri Sun. "Fuck my life."

"Yeah." Yami sounded as tired as Yugi suddenly felt. "That about sums it up."

-o0o-

Inside Arthur's wine room, Yami listened to the siren call of Yugi's heartbeat. It was strong and fast, and Yami's fangs ached with the need to sample that sweet vintage. With a groan, he tried to concentrate on something other than the forbidden source of fresh, hot blood on the other side of the door.

Yugi's voice interrupted his morbid thoughts. "So, why didn't you?"

The non-sequitur confused Yami enough that it temporarily banished his fantasies of draining the human. "'Why didn't I' what?"

"Why didn't you kill me?"

Oh. _That_. "As a general rule, I try not to kill people I've just met. It puts a damper on any potential relationship."

"But you wanted to." It wasn't a question.

"I still do." The admission burned almost as badly as the thirst. "It's nothing personal. I'm just-" He pulled in another lungful of Yugi's heady fragrance. "- _really_ hungry."

His injury only exacerbated the problem. He needed another source of blood soon or nothing would stop him from carrying out his fantasies, morals be damned. He recalled the arrangements he had made prior to setting out for the farmhouse, and felt a flash of hope.

"I'm expecting a delivery, my luggage and a small cooler. Assuming the courier makes it here before the storm, I need you to bring me the cooler as soon as it arrives."

"Okay. I'm..." A sigh, and a rustle of fabric, as if Yugi were climbing to his feet. "I'm going to go get dressed, then clean up the mess and take care of a few things. Don't worry. When your delivery arrives, I'll bring it right to you."

There was a slight hesitation, as if Yugi was thinking about saying more, and then the sound of his footsteps moving purposefully away. Yami closed his eyes and tried not to think about how easy it would be to shatter the flimsy barrier between them and taste all that wonderful blood.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note when this was originally written/posted and remember that cell phones were not as omnipresent as they are today.

After he dressed in jeans and a warm sweater, Yugi cleaned up the spilled coffee and closed all the draperies in the living room. It felt a bit like shutting the barn door after the horse had run off, but it gave him something to do other than dwell on how close he had apparently come to dying.

Unfortunately, that wasn't a new experience. In his short life, he'd had more than his fair share of close calls. When he was much younger, he had been a bully magnet. One enormous bruiser, a brute named Ushio, had landed him in the hospital after a particularly bad beating. Another time, he'd almost drowned when a prank gone wrong trapped him in a covered swimming pool. He'd had run-ins with escaped serial killers and sociopathic gang members and even a cult that seemed determined to kill him over some ancient superstition. Then he'd become a world champion gamer almost by accident, which garnered him a following of overzealous fans who didn't always understand the concept of personal boundaries. He'd survived them all; mostly intact, if a little worse for wear.

And then, several months ago, he'd become the target of an obsessed stalker and the sanity train not only derailed, it ripped up the tracks and exploded into flames.

At first, it was just anonymous notes and small gifts left at the game shop. That wasn't unusual after a tournament win, so he thought nothing of it until the photos - of him with his friends, at tournaments, alone (all apparently shot with a telephoto lens) - began to arrive. Someone was keeping tabs on him, stalking him like a hunter on safari. Yugi reluctantly agreed to let his grandpa screen his mail, and blessed Solomon Mutou's foresight in switching their home phone to an unlisted number as Yugi's fame grew.

Of course, calls still came to the game shop. For that reason, Yugi wasn't allowed to answer that phone even when working in the store. It was inconvenient, but the entire family agreed that the trade-off (Yugi's peace of mind) made it worthwhile.

The same man, who Yugi eventually discovered was named Jason Tetch, began showing up at all of Yugi's public appearances. Claiming they were lovers, he demanded to see Yugi. The gaming press had a field day with that, and Yugi's denials only fueled the fire. The published articles seemed to spur the stalker on and encourage the escalation of his behavior.

More notes arrived, through the mail or hand-delivered. The latter were the scariest, since Yugi never knew where one might turn up. The notes became abusive, making accusations and threats. His grandfather wanted to screen Yugi's mail for him, but Yugi refused. It was his problem, his responsibility. He'd deal with it.

Events continued to escalate. Anyone outside of his immediate family with whom Yugi interacted was a rival in Tetch's eyes. If he spoke to Téa or Joey or Tristan, Yugi was certain to get even more angry notes accusing him of "cheating" on his supposed lover. It got so bad he became a virtual recluse, afraid to contact his friends for fear of making them targets. He knew he would never be able to forgive himself if anyone was hurt because of him.

The worst came when Tetch broke into the Mutous' apartment above the shop and, finding no one at home, destroyed Yugi's room, nailing his goldfish to the door and scrawling " _I'm watching you_ " on the wall in blood-red paint. No longer feeling safe in his own home, and worried that his friends or family would become the stalker's next target, Yugi jumped at the chance to spend a couple of months managing the B&B for Arthur Hawkins. Now, with intruders lurking in the woods and assaulting the guests (not to mention a hungry vampire stashed away in the secret room), Yugi second-guessed his decision to leave Domino City for the wilds of Wyoming.

A knock at the front door pulled him from his musings.

Hurrying to the door, Yugi found a uniformed courier waiting on the porch. Several expensive-looking, matched leather suitcases rested at the man's feet, along with a small insulated carrier. Yugi guessed that was the cooler Yami was expecting. With a minimum of small talk, Yugi signed for the delivery and then watched the van drive away. He glanced up at the sky, heavy with low-hanging clouds that spat tiny pellets of ice. They rattled as they struck the roof of the porch.

Leaving the suitcases in the entryway, he grabbed the cooler and hurried back to the living room. He rapped his knuckles against the bookshelf which hid the vampire's daytime haven. "Yami? I've got the cooler. I'm going to open the door, now."

"Give me a second." There was an odd scraping sound, like wood on wood, before Yami called, "All right. It's safe."

Giving himself no time to think about what he was doing, Yugi opened the hidden panel just enough to shove the cooler through the gap. As fast as he could, he slammed the door shut. Something struck the door with the dull thud of flesh on wood. It shuddered from the impact. Calming his pounding heart, he gulped in a breath and asked, "Everything okay in there?"

A rather sheepish sounding, "Yes," was the only response.

Not willing to picture in too much detail what might be going on inside the secret room, Yugi cast about for a neutral topic of conversation. He settled on the question that had been nagging him since he'd realized Yami was a vampire. "What's going to happen to me? Now that I know the truth about you?"

"Nothing." Yami's voice was muffled and thick-sounding, as if he'd had to swallow before speaking. The thought of what Yami was swallowing made bile rise in Yugi's throat.

"Nothing?" That was the last thing Yugi expected to hear. "You're not worried I'll... do... something?" He couldn't really think of anything he would do, but-

"Like what? If you wanted to destroy me, you could've just let me burn. I think I can trust you."

Though the words sounded sardonic, Yugi thought he heard genuine gratitude behind them. "You can."

"Why?"

"I'm a trustworthy kind of guy."

"No, I mean why are you helping me? I'm a monster."

Yugi couldn't help himself. He laughed. "I've seen real monsters, Yami. As nightmare-inducers go, you're not even in the top ten."

"...Something tells me I really need to hear your life story in order to understand that."

"Maybe one day I'll tell you."

"Maybe I'll hold you to that."

A few minutes passed without either of them speaking. After what he judged to be a sufficient amount of time, Yugi asked, "Feeling better?"

"Almost human."

During the pause that followed, Yugi tried not to imagine the vampire patting his full stomach and dabbing blood from his lips with a napkin. "Okay. So, is it safe for you to come out? I've closed all the curtains."

Just when Yugi was beginning to think the vampire wasn't going to respond, Yami said, "It might be better if I stayed in here."

"You mean you're still-? Wasn't there enough, um, _stuff_ in the cooler?"

"My meal would have been sufficient had I not been injured. Between the blood I lost and the damage from the sun, my body requires more in order to complete the healing process."

Oh. That made sense. As much sense as anything had in the last few hours, at least. "You're just going to sit in there all day and, what? Twiddle your thumbs?"

"Actually, I'm going to sleep." Now Yami sounded amused. "When night falls, I'll go out into the woods and hunt."

That sounded better than chowing down on Yugi or one of the other guests. It surprised him, though. "You don't drink human blood?"

"Oh, I do. But I don't _have_ to drink from humans. Right now, the amount of blood I need to ingest would kill a single human donor. I'll find a deer or some other large animal."

Yugi shivered. A part of him still couldn't believe they were having this conversation. It was that part which filled him with the sudden, urgent need to be doing something else, something normal. He darted a glance at the clock on the far wall and realized with a surge of relief that he should be getting breakfast on the table for his human guests.

"Look, I have some things to take care of, so..."

"Go. I told you, I'm going to sleep."

"Yeah, okay. I guess I'll... see you tonight, when you wake up?"

"If you wish."

Not sure what to make of that and heeding the siren call of the sanity of breakfast, Yugi fled.

-o0o-

Pulled from healing sleep by the incessant buzzing of his cell phone, Yami considered crushing the thing like the insect it resembled. He rolled onto his side and yanked the phone from his jacket. The floor of the hidden room made for an uncomfortable bed, the fact that his fatigue had not lifted informed him it was still daylight outside, and the caller ID on his phone's tiny screen made him regret not giving in to that first impulse and reducing the phone to so much high-tech confetti.

Making no attempt to hide his foul mood, he snapped, "What do you want, Pegasus?

Maximillion Pegasus, the newly-ascended Vampire King, wasn't known for his patience - or his informality, a fact that never stopped Yami from ignoring court protocols when he felt like it, which was always. Both factors no doubt contributed to the ire in Pegasus' voice when he replied with an angry question of his own. "Hunter! Where the hell are you?"

"None of your business." Yami didn't socialize with his own kind, and he avoided vampire politics like plague-ridden blood (both stank and, if you weren't careful, both could kill you). "Why are you calling me?"

"I need you here."

"At court?" _Hell_ no. In his centuries of life, Yami had made exactly one court appearance, and he wasn't looking to do an encore. "You have enough supporters. You don't need me."

"You're wrong. There's a faction working against me. I need all who support me at my side." The other vampire's voice took on a note of menace. "You _do_ support me, don't you, Hunter? Perhaps the opposition is correct and you've thrown your lot in with them?"

"I'm on no one's side but my own. I've told you before, I want no part of your bloody politics. I only want to be left alone."

"I believe you, but there are many at court who do not. They believe your estrangement from our community means that you plot against us."

Yami growled. "Why would I? I've no interest in _associating_ with other vampires, much less _ruling_ them."

"One of these days you are going to have to stop moping and accept what you are."

"I accept what _I_ am just fine. I simply don't like the rest of you very much."

So what if he preferred to spend most of his time apart from others of his kind? He didn't much like the company of humans, either. There were a few exceptions, of both species, but none of them resided at court. The fact that the very people he wanted to avoid were now hounding him offered little incentive for him to become an active participant in their games.

"You may have turned your back on our society, but you're still a part of it." Pegasus affected a sigh that set Yami's teeth on edge. Really, the man's pomposity was insufferable. Barely half a century old, Pegasus often acted as if he bore the weight of millennia rather than a mere five decades of darkness. "My enemies will seek you out to ascertain your true allegiance, whatever it may be. You're going to have to choose a side. For your sake, I hope you make the right decision. And, Hunter? Watch your back."

Yami hung up without acknowledging either the warning or the veiled threat. Summoned by his anger, his fangs caught at his lip when he snarled. Damn it, he wanted no part of the vampire world. What right did it have to follow him here? Why this sudden, renewed interest in him? Was it only a matter of numbers, as Pegasus said, or did the other vampire have another motive?

Raking his fingers through his hair, Yami blew out an explosive sigh. Without meaning to, he had brought his problems directly to Yugi's door. The naïve human would have no means to distinguish between a vampire and a potential guest, and if he invited a hostile vampire into the B&B...

Picturing the resulting carnage, Yami felt his chest tighten. He'd been thinking of foregoing his usual stay, but it seemed he would have to remain. It was only fair that he protect the human from the danger in which Yami had placed him.


	5. Chapter 5

The normal operation of the bed-and-breakfast kept Yugi busy for the rest of the morning. Besides the vampire, the only other guests were an older couple celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary with a second honeymoon, and they checked out around noon. Cleaning up the vacated bedroom and preparing the one reserved for Yami took less than an hour, after which Yugi fixed himself a bowl of soup and a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. He ate in the kitchen, staring out the window at the falling snow without really seeing it. Once he'd cleared the table and washed up, he wandered around the house trying without much success to distract his brain from thoughts of the vampire in the wine room. Eventually, he found himself in the living room, standing in front of the bookcase and contemplating the vampire sheltering behind it.

"Is something wrong, Yugi?" Still rough with fatigue, the vampire's deep voice startled Yugi, who hadn't expected to find him awake.

"No, I, uh, I was just..." He trailed off, uncertain how to explain his actions, since he wasn't quite sure of the reasons for them himself. "...wondering if you needed anything?" He winced at the uncertainty in his voice.

"I need _sleep_ , which the universe seems determined to deny me." Yami's voice became clearer, as if he had moved closer to the door. "Is the sun still out?"

"Not really. I mean, it's still daylight, but the snow's coming down pretty heavily, so it's not very bright outside."

There was a long pause, then, "Open the door."

Ignoring the flutter of apprehension in his gut, Yugi tapped out the unlocking sequence and reached for _Timaeus_. The bookcase swung open and the vampire stepped out. In the wan light, Yugi studied him. Yami was still pale (though, given his species, that was probably a given), and the burned skin had begun to peel away, giving him a tattered appearance. His eyes, Yugi noticed for the first time, were a warm mahogany color. Dark circles shadowed the skin beneath them, underscoring his weariness.

Yami tilted his head back as if listening for something and, nostrils flaring, inhaled a deep breath. "Your other guests have gone."

Yugi's eyes widened. "How can you tell?"

"Enhanced senses." The vampire ran a hand over his destroyed shirt front. "My luggage?"

"I put it in your room. The professor told me you always stay in the same one." Which explained the heavy black-out drapes over the windows in the largest guestroom. Yugi had helped Professor Hawkins hang the drapes just before he departed for Egypt.

Yami nodded and headed for the staircase in the central hallway. Unhappy at the brusque dismissal, Yugi yelled after him, "You're welcome!"

The only answer was the sound of the bedroom door closing overhead.

Yugi stared at the ceiling for a long moment, half-wishing he could shoot eye-daggers through the wood, and muttered under his breath. "...Stupid, arrogant, _rude_ vampire."

"I can hear you!"

Yugi upgraded the eye-daggers to eye-lasers. "Good. Being dead is no excuse for bad manners!"

Something tapped him on the shoulder. Yugi shrieked and jumped a foot in the air. When he landed, he spun and found himself staring at a smug-looking vampire, who smirked at him.

"I'm not dead." Yami folded his arms over his chest (now clad in a blue shirt) and cocked an eyebrow. "My heart beats, albeit much slower than yours. I breathe. I sleep. I don't sparkle. You shouldn't believe everything you read, you know."

"You-!"

"I'm going out. Whatever you do, do _not_ invite anyone inside while I'm gone."

Incipient rant derailed, Yugi gaped at him. "What? Why not?"

"The books don't get everything wrong. We can't enter a dwelling unless we're invited."

Confusion knitted Yugi's brows. "You sound like you're expecting more... people like you... to show up."

"It's a distinct possibility." Yami frowned. "I have to hunt, but I'll be as quick as I can. I don't want to leave you alone for any longer than I have to."

That didn't sound reassuring. In fact, it sounded a lot like Yami was implying... "Whoa, whoa, _whoa_! Are these _unfriendly_ vampires we're talking about potentially darkening my doorstep?"

"Most likely. We aren't exactly known for spreading goodwill wherever we go." Not looking at Yugi, Yami strode toward the back door. "Lock the door after I leave."

With the tenacity that had made him a world champion before he turned sixteen, Yugi refused to be put off. "Why, _exactly_ , are these unfriendly vampires likely to show up here?"

"It's complicated."

 _Awesome_. Yugi groaned. He'd fled hundreds of miles to evade a human stalker only to end up in the middle of Vampapalooza. "Can I at least get a hint?"

Yami shrugged and finally deigned to glance at him. "Politics."

" _Vampires_ have politics." Yugi's flat voice made it a statement, not a question. "What, did somebody stuff an undead ballot box?"

"Something like that." Yami opened the door. Outside, the wind howled like a mournful wolf and snow cast a veil across the gloom, reducing visibility to a few feet. "Lock the doors and windows. Stay inside. _Don't_ invite _anyone_ in. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Wait, I--" Yugi protested, but it was too late.

Yami was gone.

-o0o-

Sprinting into the woods, Yami reveled in the feeling of the icy wind on his face. The cold soothed the lingering heat of his burned flesh. The wind carried the scents of pine and snow, and a distant hint of wood smoke. He took it as a good sign that he didn't detect even a trace of another vampire.

Giving in to the urgings of his stomach, Yami ran through the trees, senses attuned to the hunt. He caught the musky scent of deer and changed course to follow the trail, vaulting over a fallen log and landing lightly on the other side. In no time, he spotted his prey, a strong buck that would provide a filling, if not particularly tasty, meal.

Baring his teeth in a silent snarl, he leaped.

-o0o-

Alone in the house, Yugi tried to relax but found it impossible. He was acutely aware of every creak and groan the old house made, of the wind howling like a spirit in torment, and of the sharp tapping of sleet striking the windows. Desperate to distract himself, he went into his closet and dug out the small golden box that he had, years ago, talked his grandpa into letting him have as a "memento." Grandpa hadn't been too happy about Yugi calling it that, but he'd eventually given in. (By the tender age of eight, Yugi had already perfected what his friends would later dub "the puppy eyes of doom.")

The box was metal, its top and sides embossed with Egyptian hieroglyphs. He had once asked Grandpa Solomon to translate the writing, but the old man had refused, saying something about "ancient powers of darkness." Yugi had scoffed at the notion, but he was almost ready to reconsider his position on the subject. He turned the box over in his hands, staring at the symbols and wondering which ones were the ancient Egyptian equivalent of the phrase "Murphy's Law." It certainly seemed that anything in his life that could go wrong, did.

Shaking his head at his own foolishness, Yugi sat on the bed and dumped the contents of the box onto the bedspread. The golden puzzle pieces glimmered in the light of the bedside lamp. He had spent years trying to solve this puzzle. He'd assembled enough of it to know its ultimate shape was that of a pyramid, but he had yet to figure out how to fit the final pieces into place. Picking up the largest, he ran his fingers over the raised Eye of Horus decorating its center. The gold warmed to his touch, feeling almost alive beneath his fingers.

Laying the center piece to one side, he began assembling the parts of the puzzle he had solved. As he worked, he recalled the story his grandpa had told him about finding the artifact at an estate sale in, of all places, Hoboken. The previous owner's surviving relatives, no great fans of archaeology, mistook the undocumented antiquity for a cheap tourist souvenir and happily sold it to Solomon Mutou for a pittance. The old scoundrel still crowed about his find.

Hearing a door slam downstairs, Yugi dropped the puzzle onto the bed. It was probably Yami returning from his hunt, but Yugi didn't feel like taking any chances. His gaze darted around the room and landed on the closest thing to a weapon among the homey furnishings: a cast-iron fireplace poker. Snatching up the heavy implement, he crept out of the bedroom and down the hall.

At the top of the stairs, he hesitated. He didn't hear anything and from this angle, he couldn't see the door. He spared a moment to wish he had left all the downstairs lights on. The shadows were thick in the central hallway and the rooms beyond, offering no hint of who (or what) might be lurking just out of sight. Clutching the poker tighter, he eased down the stairs as silently as his socked feet could carry him.

Yugi felt the cold air before he got to the back door, which had been flung open despite the now-shattered latch. As he watched, the wind caught the door and banged it against the wall again. He inched toward the opening, the poker clenched in both hands, ready to strike. When he reached the switch, he flipped on the porch light. The yellow glow did little to dispel the gloom of the storm, but it illuminated all too clearly the "gift" someone had been left for him, just across the threshold.

His stomach lurched at the revolting sight. Laid out like a macabre offering, the carcass of a dead deer blocked the doorway. Blood painted the porch, staining the weathered floorboards and the drifting snow beneath the deer. The coppery stench of blood was overpowering, choking the breath in his lungs. Gagging, he turned away -- and froze when he saw the message scrawled in dripping red letters on the outer surface of the door.

 _I'm watching you_.

The carrion reek filling his nose, Yugi stumbled back into the house. He retched, the poker tumbling from his hand as he crashed to his knees. The bloody message battered at his brain. _I'm watching you... I'm watching you...I'm watching you..._

The meaning was clear. His haven was no longer safe.

His stalker had found him.


	6. Chapter 6

Yami smelled the blood long before he saw it.

He had fed well and taken the time to wash his face and hands in a fast-moving stream. The icy temperature of the water didn't bother him, even when he dunked his head in it to sluice the dried blood from his hair. Of course, he planned to take a hot shower when he returned to the house, but he preferred not to go back covered in blood. He could imagine the expression that would put on Yugi's face, and he didn't want to see it for real.

Long strides ate up the ground as he loped through the trees. Healed by the buck's blood, his skin was once again smooth and now faintly flushed from the blood he had consumed. Instead of crushing fatigue, new energy coursed through his limbs. The sun was sinking below the tree-line, the advent of night sharpening his senses. The urge to stretch his muscles by running for miles without stopping threatened to overtake him, but he forced it down and turned his steps back toward the house.

As he neared the farmhouse, all thoughts of frivolous activities fled his mind. The smell of freshly shed blood hung in the air, so thick it overwhelmed every other scent in the vicinity. Throat constricting with sudden fear, he raced toward the house, terrified of what he might find there.

Light spilled from the open doorway. _Open_ doorway. Someone had breached the safety of the house.

"Yugi!" Yami leaped across the porch, barely registering the obstacle blocking the threshold, and into the house. He slammed to a sudden halt on the other side of the doorway, nearly collapsing with relief at the sight of a whole, breathing Yugi slumped on the floor. Yami's heart came as close to pounding as was possible for a vampire. He flashed to Yugi's side and dropped to his knees beside the distraught human. "Yugi?"

"Did you see it?"

The quiet question took Yami by surprise. It wasn't the reaction he expected. "See what?"

A shaky hand pointed at the doorway. Realizing he hadn't paid attention to much beyond getting to Yugi and making certain he was okay, Yami turned his head. Fresh outrage surged through him.

The door hung drunkenly on broken hinges. Through the opening, he now saw that the obstacle blocking the threshold was the carcass of a doe. The animal's hide had been slashed until it hung in bloody ribbons, and congealing blood puddled beneath it. Blood painted the snow, the porch, and, on the broken door, stark against the white paint, spelled out the words: _I'm watching you._

"He found me."

"Who?"

"The man who's been stalking me."

The listless quality of Yugi's voice tore at Yami in ways he couldn't begin to decipher. Maybe it was because the human had been nothing but kind to him when he'd had no reason to be. Maybe it was something else. Whatever it was, it made Yami ache to take away the despair he heard and to restore Yugi to his normal, frustrating self.

With sudden determination, Yami rose and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to get rid of that--" Yami gestured at the deer carcass. "--and then I'm going to repair the door."

He watched with some surprise as the human pushed himself to his feet and squared his shoulders. Resolve settled over Yugi's features, making him look older and a lot wearier. "I'll help you."

It was on Yami's tongue to refuse, but the look in Yugi's eyes stilled the words before they formed. "I'll dispose of the deer. See if you can find some tools so we can put the door to rights or, if all else fails, board it up."

"All right." Yugi headed for the door leading down to the cellar, where Yami vaguely recalled Arthur had a small workshop.

As soon as the human trudged out of sight, Yami hefted the dead deer, slung it over his shoulder, and sprinted toward the trees. He planned to dump the carcass out of sight of the house, but he didn't want to venture too far into the woods. It didn't seem like a good idea to leave Yugi alone and vulnerable.

Once past the outer edge of the trees, he spotted a rocky outcropping and tossed the deer over it. Local scavengers would take care of the carrion. Satisfied with his solution, he started back. The wind gusted in vicious bursts, snapping the tops of the trees back and forth. Now that he was no longer moving downwind, he caught a blast of an unmistakable scent full in the face. His lips peeled back in a snarl, baring his teeth.

 _Vampire_.

-o0o-

More out of optimism than any real hope it would keep out anything other than the blowing snow, Yugi closed the broken door and went to find a toolbox.

A few minutes later, having located the necessary tools, Yugi set about repairing the door. This proved to be easier said than done, as the hinges were warped and refused to accept their pins when he tried to set them back in order. Luckily, he found a package of new brass hinges on the shelf above the basement workbench and, after some fumbling, managed to remove the old hinges and screw the new ones into place. He had to get a chair from the kitchen table to prop against the door and keep it from sliding while he attempted to re-hang it. Another pair of hands would be helpful, he thought with a frown, and that thought sent his mind careening back to Yami. He hoped the vampire didn't run into any trouble out there in the woods alone.

With a sigh, he hefted the door again, leaned against it to hold it steady, and managed to slide the first hinge pin home. He figured he would have the door back in working order by the time Yami returned.

-o0o-

Yami stalked the edge of the woods. The other vampire had lingered here for some time, perhaps for days, and the scent was strong. Broken branches showed where the lurker had perched in various trees in order to watch the house, but Yami found no clues to the other vampire's identity. He suspected it was either one the king's minions or one of the king's rivals, sent to ascertain Yami's loyalty. Either was unwelcome, particularly since it meant someone had noticed his annual visits to this place. In addition to the strange vampire's scent, he caught faint traces where humans had passed through the woods. The town wasn't far and the entire area was popular with hikers, even in the dead of winter, so it wasn't surprising humans had been in the area.

Keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of intruders, human or vampire, he detoured by the barn on his way back to the house. A quick search turned up a scoop, which he used to clear away as much of the bloodied snow as possible. He propped the scoop against the wall of the house and stared at the macabre calligraphy on the door, uncertain what to do. To get rid of it, he'd have to paint over it or replace the door. Finally, he shrugged. He was no handyman. When the weather cleared, he'd hire someone to hang a new door.

Speaking of handymen, Yami gave a nod of approval as he noted the surprisingly quick job Yugi had made of fixing the door. It swung open and Yugi peered out at him, his worried expression shifting to one of relief as his gaze fell on Yami.

"Oh, good," Yugi said, stepping aside to let Yami enter the house. "You're done?"

After locking the back door, Yami herded him back into the kitchen. "Nice job on the repairs."

Yugi didn't seem to notice the compliment. "Did you see anyone out there?"

"No." Yami crossed over to the central hallway and started up the stairs. "I'm going to clean up. I'll only be a moment."

"...Right."

The human sounded subdued, a far cry from his usual self. Though he wasn't certain why, Yami decided he didn't like it.

-o0o-

When Yami returned from his shower (clean and dry, and freshly attired in a gray sweater and black jeans), he followed Yugi's scent to the living room. The human was inside the secret room behind the bookcase. Yami stuck his head through the opening. "What are you doing?"

Having apparently not heard the vampire's approach, Yugi jumped and dropped a box on his foot. He shot a dirty look over his shoulder. "Don't _do_ that!"

"Do what?" Though he had a good idea what Yugi meant, Yami feigned innocence.

Not fooled, Yugi glowered at him. "Creep around like that without making any noise. It's unnatural!"

"Well, I _am_ a vampire."

"Yeah, _vampire_ , not _cat_. I should make you wear a bell." Yugi turned his attention back to whatever he'd been doing before Yami interrupted.

Taking a step into the space behind the bookcase, Yami realized for the first time just how cramped the room was. Before, he had been too absorbed with controlling his hunger to pay much attention to his surroundings. Shelves and wine-racks crowded the walls, holding the jewels of Arthur's collection. A small square table and single chair sat in the center of the small room, directly beneath the light fixture. Since Yami knew he had left both table and chair overturned from his earlier stint in the room, he figured Yugi must have straightened up. That table had saved Yugi's life by blocking Yami's lunge when Yugi opened the door to toss the blood cooler inside. Yami wondered if the human realized this, but, considering Yugi had turned his back on the vampire rather than attempting to stake him, Yami decided the answer was "probably not."

He tried again. "What are you doing in here?"

"Looking for something."

Well, that was enlightening. "Anything in particular?" When Yugi shot him another frown, Yami added, "Maybe I can help you find it."

"That's all right. I've got it." Yugi slipped a small object into the pocket of his jeans before Yami could see what it was.

Since it was clear Yugi wasn't going to tell him what he was up to, Yami dismissed his curiosity for more practical considerations. "You know, I may need to take refuge in here again. Show me the code to operate the panel."

"Professor Hawkins never showed it to you?"

"This room wasn't here the last time I visited." A faint smile curved his lips and he shook his head. "How like Arthur to indulge his sense of the melodramatic. He always did love secret passageways and hidden rooms. I'm not surprised he added this one."

Coming to stand beside the vampire, Yugi ushered him back out into the main room and pointed out the seemingly random books that served as the door's combination lock. The titles were scattered all over the bookcase, no two side-by-side. Yugi touched the four books in order: _Uarda_ , _Jewel of the Seven Stars_ , _She_ , and _Critias_. "Then _Timaeus_ , to trigger the panel to open. You just pull on the spine." He demonstrated, and the door swung open on well-oiled hinges.

Yami pushed the door shut and trailed a gentle fingertip over the spines of the nearest books. The leather and cloth bindings were worn but well-cared-for. When he pulled a volume of Sherlock Holmes from its place, the book fell open to a dog-eared page and the aroma of apple-scented pipe tobacco rose up from the yellowed pages. The smell brought with it memories of foggy nights, smoky jazz clubs, and long, languid conversations in the dark. A fond smile curled his lips. "I had forgotten Arthur's eclectic tastes in recreational reading."

"He has an entire set of H. Rider Haggard's works, too, not just this one copy of _She_. I sometimes think he and Grandpa like to pretend they're living out Allan Quatermain's adventures." Fond amusement colored Yugi's tone. "Or Indiana Jones'."

Chuckling, Yami carefully replaced the book on its shelf. "That certainly sounds like Arthur."

"Hey, I've been wondering about something. Professor Hawkins told me you're his best-" Yugi stopped, his brows drawing together. "Actually, he said you were his _favorite_ customer, and that you come here at the same time every year. If you have a standing reservation, why doesn't that count as inviting you in?"

"It just doesn't."

"Okay. But you and Arthur have known each other for years, right? And he's obviously invited you in before, since you've stayed here a lot. Why did you need me to renew the invitation?"

Yugi had just found one of the reasons Yami preferred never to tell anyone what he really was. Humans had to know _everything_ , whether it was any of their business or not. So tiresome. But he could see by the stubborn tilt of Yugi's chin that the human wasn't going to let the subject drop, so Yami huffed and leaned his shoulder against the bookcase. He folded his arms over his chest and studied Yugi for a second before countering, "How long have you been staying here?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just answer the question." Seeing the mutinous set of Yugi's jaw, Yami rolled his eyes. "If you want me to answer your question, you have to answer mine first."

"Fine." Yugi's expression was probably intended to be intimidating, but the scrunched eyebrows, glaring eyes, and pouting lips merely amused the vampire. "I've been here almost six months. Why?"

Yami nodded. That explained it. "The invitation isn't perpetual. And you've been here long enough as custodian for the house to become _your_ dwelling in Arthur's absence."

"I guess... But, how does the whole 'have to be invited in' thing work, anyway? Is it just a psychological barrier and you could overcome it if you tried hard enough or is it a physical thing?"

"I don't know how it works. It just does." The only real explanation Yami could offer was "it's magic," and he _really_ didn't want to have _that_ conversation right now.

"Well, hasn't anyone ever studied it? It's kind of important for you guys, isn't it? If you get caught outside without shelter and the sun is coming up... I mean, it seems like one of you would have looked into it by now."

"Maybe they have." Yami shrugged and let his gaze drift over to the window. The drapes were still drawn, which meant anyone lurking outside couldn't see them, but it also meant he couldn't see out to check for said theoretical lurkers. Pushing off the bookcase, he wandered to the window and twitched one of the drapes aside so he could peer out the window. "I don't associate very often with other vampires."

"I'm sure vampire society mourns the absence of your scintillating conversation." Yugi rubbed at his forehead. "You know what? I think I'm going to go lie down for awhile. All this witty repartee is giving me a headache."

In a flash, Yami was beside Yugi again, stopping his exit with a soft grip on his arm. The speed must have startled Yugi because he gasped.

"I'm sorry if I have been poor company, Yugi. I've been a bit distracted."

"I'm not exactly at the top of my game, myself." Bright eyes - and how had Yami not noticed they were such an arresting color, as blue as spring hyacinths? - sought his, commanding honesty. "Did you see anyone when you were out there earlier?"

They held each other's gazes while Yami debated the merits of telling the truth. Finally, he sighed. "When I was disposing of the deer, I thought I smelled another vampire."

-o0o-

"Awesome." Yugi wrapped both arms around his own torso and squeezed. It didn't help. His innards still felt as if they were turning to ice water. "So, we've not only got my personal stalker to worry about, but, hey, let's throw in a hostile vampire in the woods. This day just keeps getting better." And by _better_ , he meant _epically worse_. "Do you think the vampire you smelled is the same one who attacked you this morning?"

"Maybe." Yami shrugged. "Could be somebody else."

Because that was so much better; three potential enemies rather than two. Yay. It took every ounce of willpower Yugi possessed not to say any of those thoughts aloud. (Yami's taciturn nature was starting to grate on his already strained nerves. Getting the vampire to talk was like pulling teeth, or should that be _fangs_?) "What about those 'enhanced senses' of yours? You didn't, I dunno, recognize their scent or something?"

"I'm not a bloodhound." The comparison seemed to offend Yami, who straightened to his full height and glared down his aristocratic nose at Yugi. "As I tend to avoid my own kind as much as possible, _no_ , I didn't 'recognize the scent.' We won't know who they are until -- if -- they reveal themselves."

So the unknown vampire could just be curious about the goings on at the B&B, or it could be an unfriendly hanging around for nefarious purposes. Or maybe it was just hungry and looking at the B&B as an all-you-can-eat buffet. Oh, yeah _._ Not just awesome, but super _special_ awesome. _Fuck_. Maybe Yugi would get lucky and the unknown vampire would have Jason Tetch for a snack and then contract food-poisoning from his blood. Two birds, one stone.

"Let's talk about something else now," Yugi said with a false brightness that he was half-hoping would convince himself things weren't as bad as they seemed. "So, how do you know Professor Hawkins?"

"Oh, Arthur and I go way back."

Yami guided them over to the sofa, where he settled himself elegantly in one corner. After a second's hesitation, Yugi joined him. He curled into the opposite corner, drawing his knees up beneath his chin and staring at his socked feet. That left the middle cushion empty between them. Yugi's arm tingled where Yami had touched it. Rubbing at the spot, Yugi peeked up at Yami through his bangs. "How did the two of you meet?"

"We met about fifty years ago, in Chicago. Arthur was a young archaeologist, newly graduated from university and full of passion... for his work. Just being around him made me feel more alive than I'd felt in decades, so I tagged along on his adventures for a few years." His features softened at the obviously pleasant memories. "Such grand times we had."

"Hey, I just thought of something. You said you've been coming here for over a hundred years, but the professor's only owned this place for the last ten. So, how-?"

Yami shifted on the sofa cushion, one hand coming up to rake through his hair. "Technically, _I_ own the place, even though I've passed it along to various caretakers over the last one hundred years. Upon entering into the contract with my agent, the current 'owner' agrees to certain stipulations. They cannot sell the house or land, and any substantial changes to the property must be cleared with my legal representative."

"Wait... If you own this place, why do you still need an invitation to enter?"

"Threshold magic has less to do with ownership and more with resonance and proximity. When you live somewhere, you create psychic impressions in that location. That's what some ghosts are, you know, psychic 'recordings' playing perpetually... Look, it's complicated." Yami made a dismissive gesture. "The simple answer is that it's just how the magic works."

Great, so now he was supposed to just accept that not only were vampires real, but so were ghosts and magic? Could his life get any more awesome? Yugi picked up a throw pillow and hugged it to his chest, turning his thoughts ruthlessly toward a slightly saner topic. "How come you didn't know about the hidden room? Didn't the professor have to get your permission to build it?"

"No. It's wasn't a major renovation. Besides--"

Quiet laughter made Yami's face light up, erasing the tension from his features, and Yugi caught his breath. He hadn't realized it before, either because Yami had been in less than optimum condition or because Yugi had more pressing concerns on his mind, but the vampire was really quite handsome. This revelation startled him so much that it took him a moment to register that Yami was still speaking.

"--knew I would never deny him his little indulgence."

Yugi felt a tiny pang of something that couldn't possibly be jealousy. (Jealousy? Don't be ridiculous, he barely even knew Yami! Maybe it was indigestion...) He toyed with the decorative tassel on his throw pillow shield. "The two of you must be close."

"I like to think we've remained good friends." If there was a hint in his voice and in his slightly wistful expression that they might once have been more, Yami chose not to elaborate. "How do _you_ know Arthur?"

"Through my grandpa. He and the professor met years ago on an archaeological expedition in Egypt. There was a tomb cave-in that turned into a 'male bonding' experience for them, and they've been best buddies ever since. Although, they've never gotten to spend much time together because the professor travels so much. Or, at least, he used to. It was kind of a shock to find out he'd settled down and started running a bed-and-breakfast."

"Yes, I was rather surprised when he took me up on my offer." Yami assumed a thoughtful expression. "Can't say that I wasn't happy about it, of course. Coming here has always been more pleasant when I know there's a friendly face waiting for me."

"Sorry you have to make do with me, this time."

An unreadable expression passed over the vampire's (really quite _astonishingly_ handsome - seriously, how had Yugi missed this?) features. "Oh, I don't know. You're growing on me."

"Like a fungus, right?" At Yami's startled laugh, Yugi flushed and hurried to explain. "Heh, sorry. That's what one of my friends back home always says."

Another deep chuckle rumbled from Yami's chest. "I'd have to say you're much more pleasant than the average fungus. Possibly even as agreeable as lichen or maybe even moss."

"Gee, thanks. You really know how to flatter a guy."

"It's part of my irresistible charm." Then the vampire's teasing expression turned serious. "Somehow, you don't strike me as a guy who needs his ego stroked. You seem very sure of yourself."

That wasn't something Yugi heard very often. Most people tended to underestimate him because of his unassuming manner and admittedly unimpressive (lack of) height. "Really?"

"Oh, yes." Yami leaned closer, his cool breath wafting over Yugi's cheek. "I find it quite entic-"

A loud crash from outside shattered the moment. They both leaped to their feet and rushed to the window, yanking back the draperies. Outside, something twisted the darkness into flickering shadows that danced across the window panes. Yugi's heart plunged straight to his toes as he realized what it meant.

He turned and raced toward the front door. "The barn's on fire!"


	7. Chapter 7

In the entryway, Yami caught up with Yugi, grabbing him just in time to prevent him from yanking open the door and dashing outside. "Have you taken leave of your senses? You can't go out there!"

"Like hell I can't!" Yugi tried to throw off the hand keeping him in place, but vampires were apparently freakishly strong when they weren't starving, and Yami held him as effortlessly as an adult would a child. "I'm responsible for this place while the professor's gone. I've got to--"

"Yugi, it's _my_ barn. And I'd let it -- hell, this entire place! -- burn to the ground before I'd let anything happen to you."

Shocked out of his single-minded drive to get to the fire, Yugi stopped struggling. "What?"

"It's just a building. A _thing_. Things can be replaced. People can't." The dark expression in Yami's eyes said it was a hard-learned lesson. "You stay here. I'll go and see if I can put the fire out or at least make sure it's confined to the barn."

"It's my responsibility. I have to help!"

"You can help more by staying in the house where it's safe. If I have to divide my attention between making sure you're okay and putting out the fire--"

"I can look after myself! I'm not helpless, you know." Yugi glared at him. "I'm not some damsel in distress. In case you haven't noticed, I'm just as much of a guy as you are!"

"Believe me, Yugi, I've noticed." Yami's gaze flicked over him, as heated as the fire outside, but his lips twitched as he added, "And, technically... since you're human, you're _more_ of a 'guy' than I am."

"Then get out of my way and let me go put out the damned fire!"

"No."

"But, you just said--"

"I said I don't think you're a damsel, distressed or otherwise. But I _do_ think you're human. Compared to a vampire, that makes you pretty damned fragile."

Yugi bristled. "You don't know that the arsonist is a vampire. It could just as easily be a human--"

"Yes, it could be a _psychotic_ human _with a gun_."

"Which they could use to shoot _you_ just as easily as they could me. Or do vampires have some magical bullet deflecting ability?"

"No, we don't. However, vampires do heal fast and, while getting shot hurts like the very devil, it won't kill me. Can you say the same?"

Why did the damn vampire have to start making sense _now_? Logic was a supremely unfair method to use to up-end Yugi's argument.

" _Fine_." Yugi fought the childish urge to stamp his foot. Instead, he forced himself to step away from the door. "I'll wait here, in the house. But, if you get yourself killed, I swear I'll bring you back just so I can stake you myself."

Flashing a toothy (and rather wicked) grin, Yami dashed through the doorway and vanished into the writhing shadows. Feeling his stomach drop with fresh anxiety, Yugi slammed the door and leaned against it. He sighed. Maybe Grandpa was right all along and that damned puzzle really was cursed.

-o0o-

Twilight enveloped Yami as he sprinted toward the barn. Fresh snow crunched beneath his feet, the only other sound the crackling of the fire. Even before he reached the structure, he smelled the pungent reek of gasoline. Orange flames licked at the weathered siding from the pile of dry brush which had been stacked against one wall of the barn.

 _Arson_. Hesitating, he opened his senses to the darkness. He could feel malevolent eyes watching him from the trees, but the wind was in the wrong direction and all he smelled was the stench of chemical-laden smoke. The flames hadn't taken hold yet, so he flashed back to the house and grabbed the snow scoop he had left on the back porch. Race back to the barn at full speed. Scoop up a shovel full of snow and dump it onto the blaze. Repeat. The fire was out before too much damage was done to the structure.

When he returned to the house, Yugi was waiting for him on the front porch. Yami glowered at him. "I thought I told you to stay inside."

An eye-roll greeted this admonition. "Is the fire out?"

"Yes." Yami herded him back into the house. "Which part of 'it's not safe out there' did you not understand?"

"I understood just fine." Yugi watched him lock the door. "Was it a vampire who set the fire?"

"I don't know. Probably not." Destroying the barn served no purpose other than to announce the intruder's presence and piss off Yami. Pissing off Yami wasn't going convince him to join either side of the political battle. Besides... "Vampires don't really like fire all that much. We're highly flammable."

"So, it was Tetch."

"Who?" Yami followed Yugi as the human wandered into the kitchen and began, with every indication of being on autopilot, to make coffee. "Yugi? Who's 'Tetch'?"

As the kitchen filled with the aroma of brewing coffee, Yugi pulled a chair out from the table and sat down. "Jason Tetch. He's a disturbed man who's been stalking me. A few months ago, things got... intense. I didn't feel safe in Domino, so Professor Hawkins offered to let me stay here. I thought..."

"You thought he wouldn't follow you." Yami went to a corner cabinet and peered inside. He wasn't disappointed; Arthur still kept a bottle of brandy on the upper shelf. He grabbed a mug off the tree on the counter, poured a couple of fingers of brandy, and set the mug in front of Yugi. "Drink that."

"I don't--"

"Just sip it." Alcohol had a sedative effect on humans, and Yugi looked brittle enough to snap. He needed to relax before he broke. Yami watched him carefully for a moment. When he saw the taut muscles in Yugi's shoulders start to sag, he said, "Can you tell me what happened?"

In halting words, Yugi did. He told Yami about the gaming tournaments and the publicity. About how the fame had brought unwelcome attention, in more ways than one. He spoke about the notes, the harassment, the invasion of his home. Through it all, Yami listened - not just to Yugi's words, but to the pounding of his heart, the straining of his breath. Only half-aware of his own action, Yami reached across the table and took Yugi's hand in his own.

"I didn't think he'd find me here." Yugi gave his hand a squeeze before getting up to refill his mug with coffee, rather than brandy. "I thought I'd be safe, so far away from Domino. I guess I underestimated the depth of his delusion."

"It may not be him."

"I'm not sure a fire-bug vampire is really the better alternative." Coffee cup in hand, Yugi returned to the table. "Okay, you know my story. Now, it's your turn."

Arching an eyebrow, Yami pretended not to understand. "My turn?"

"Yeah. Why are unhappy vampires out to get you?"

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Yami snorted a laugh at Yugi's choice of descriptive terms. "I told you. Politics."

Yugi favored him with a withering look. Yami sighed.

"Fine. If you insist on the gory details... For most of our history, vampires have been, for lack of a better term, anarchists. About a thousand years ago, some idiot decided we needed structure and declared himself king. Unfortunately, he had the muscle to back it up, and so the idea took root. Since then, every hundred years or so, some new idiot decides the current moron isn't worthy of the crown and tries to dethrone him or her. Cue in-fighting among the various factions until one of them annihilates the competition."

"Vampire wars." Yugi slumped lower in his chair. "Awesome."

"Tell me about it." Disdain curled Yami's lip. "I want nothing to do with any of them. They're all morons. So, I stay as far from other vampires, especially the 'royal court,' as I can."

"Yeah, I can see why. But, why are they so interested in you?"

Yami shrugged. "There aren't that many vampires in the world, and even fewer are more than a few centuries old." Seeing Yugi's surprise, he explained, "We _really_ don't work and play well with others of our own kind. We kill each other pretty regularly. Keeps the population down, which is a good thing. Cuts down on competition for territory, for prey. Many vampires don't think much beyond their next meal, but some have a lust for power that rivals their lust for blood, and they tend to drag the rest of us into their stupid games."

Just the thought of it angered Yami. He didn't give a damn who wanted to play at being monarch. None of them ever accomplished anything other than stroking their inflated egos and annoying the shit out of him. But they all insisted everyone take sides, as if the body count of their "supporters" was all that mattered. Maybe, to them, it was. The vampire with the most minions won, by default if not through actual battle. For his part, Yami just wished they would all leave him to his quiet life.

Yugi's voice pulled him back to the present. "Why is age so important?"

"Older vampire equals more powerful vampire. More powerful vampires on your side means you get to be, or stay, king."

"And you're one of the older ones?"

"At the moment, yes." A shrug, accompanied by a grimace. "Lucky me."

Speculative eyes studied him. "So, how old are you?"

"A bit over two hundred. Normally, someone my age wouldn't be such a big deal, but there was a big turf war just over two hundred years ago, wiped out most of the 'elders'." Yami grimaced. "The current king is only fifty years old. He came to the throne through subterfuge and cunning, and now he needs all the older, more powerful vampires on his side in order to keep his position."

"Let me guess." Yugi grinned. "You refused."

"Too bad Pegasus doesn't know how to take 'no' for an answer." Yami eyed the brandy bottle on the counter and briefly wished his system would tolerate alcohol. There were times when getting stinking drunk sounded far too tempting. "He believes that, since I've refused to side _with_ him, I'll side with his rivals."

"Will you?"

A snort. "Like I give a damn who's king. Of course, if the prospective king would swear to leave me alone afterward, I might be tempted to help him acquire the throne." He thought about it for a second. "Probably not. Too much trouble."

"You know--" Yugi's mouth twitched. "--I can totally believe that whole 'doesn't work and play well with others' thing, at least where _you're_ concerned."

"Oh, shut up and drink your coffee." Despite the words, Yami half-grinned. Interacting with Yugi was oddly refreshing, despite Yami's natural aversion to the company of others. Maybe it was the fact that Yugi gave as good as he got.

Yami resolved to enjoy it while he could.

-o0o-

While Yugi found the details of vampire society fascinating, he could see that Yami was unhappy talking about it. The vampire really did seem to have a strong misanthropic streak, which made his tolerance for Yugi's company all the more surprising. Sipping his coffee (which still tasted vaguely of brandy), Yugi studied his companion.

How the vampire managed to lounge on a straight-backed kitchen chair, Yugi didn't know, but Yami carried it off with casual aplomb. He raked long fingers through his tousled hair and favored Yugi with a tiny smile that only crooked one side of his mouth.

"Feel better?" Yami asked.

Oddly enough, Yugi did. He nodded and set his coffee mug aside. "I--"

The ringing of the house phone interrupted him. With an apologetic little smile-and-shrug, he hurried over to the phone on the wall near the sink. After a quick conversation confirming a guest's reservation and intended check-in in the morning, he hung up the phone and leaned against the counter. He wondered if he should have made up some excuse to warn them off. Stalkers and vampires and arsonists, oh my.

"You okay? You look worried."

"More guests will be arriving soon. Is it going to be safe for them to be here?" He had called the sheriff's office while Yami was dealing with the fire. The deputy he spoke to assured him they would send someone out as soon as possible. Apparently, the weather was causing problems for people all over the county. "Between us, we can probably handle my stalker, but what about your vampires? Is there anything we can do to vamp-proof the inn?"

Yami laughed (a rich sound that sparked pleasant shivers along Yugi's spine), and shook his head. "What? Like hang garlic on all the doors? That doesn't actually work, you know."

 _Crap_. But they couldn't come in without an invitation, which was a pretty strong deterrent. On the other hand, what about newly arriving guests? Yugi always welcomed them to the B&B. How could he make certain they were human and not fanged unfriendlies?

"I know you have to avoid sunlight, but you were able to go out once the cloud cover got thick enough. Could another vampire show up tomorrow pretending to be a guest?"

"It isn't likely." With one pale finger, Yami traced an absentminded pattern on the tabletop. "I seem to have a bit more tolerance for the sun than most of my kind, and you saw how vulnerable _I_ am. Any other vampire attempting to go out during the day would probably go up like a torch, especially the younger ones."

"Good to know." Still, Yugi would feel safer if he had an effective method for fighting back. Unbidden, his hand went to his pocket, where he had stashed the object he'd retrieved from the hidden room. The professor had pointed it out to him before leaving, "just in case." At the time, Yugi had believed he would have no need for it. Now... "What about a taser?"

Elegant eyebrows shot up toward Yami's eccentric hairline. "No, I don't think hanging one of those on the door would do much good, either."

"That's not what I meant!" Amusement warred with annoyance for control of Yugi's expression. Amusement won and tossed in a bonus eye-roll. He was tempted to make it a practical experiment, with Yami as the test subject. "If I shot _you_ with a taser, what would happen?"

"You would put holes in one of my favorite sweaters, and I would be pissed at you for at least an hour." Yami's brows had lowered, but he arched one again. "You aren't really planning on shooting me, are you?"

"The thought may have crossed my mind." Grinning despite himself, Yugi grabbed the carafe from the coffeemaker and refilled his mug. "Okay, so garlic and tasers are out. What _will_ work?"

"Just be very careful who you let into the house and leave the unfriendly vampires to me."

-o0o-

The rest of the evening passed without incident. Despite his best efforts to relax, Yugi remained tense and was grateful for the distraction of Yami's company. They returned to the living room, and Yugi once again found himself searching for suitable topics of conversation. Finally, having exhausted all available avenues of small talk, he let his natural inquisitiveness get the better of him again.

"I've been wondering..."

Standing by the window, Yami turned from peering out through a gap in the drapes and fixed him with a cautious look. "Yes?"

"You come here every year at the same time. Why is that?" What was so special about this place, and this time of year, that it had brought the vampire back without fail for so long? "You said it was your 'tradition'?"

"It's personal."

And not entirely pleasant, if Yami's tone was anything to go by. Instantly, Yugi regretted bringing it up. "Sorry, I didn't mean to pry."

Leaving the window, Yami drifted over to the fireplace and stood staring into the flames. Eventually, he sighed. "Something happened here. Actually-" He leaned an elbow on the mantle and rested his chin on his hand as the echoes of memory played across his face along with the shadows cast by the fire. "-lots of things happened here, some good, some... not so good. I come back here so I won't forget them."

Watching the shadows dance, it struck Yugi that there was something very odd about Yami in that moment. But the pain on the other man's face took precedent over Yugi's curiosity. "I'm sorry, Yami. I didn't mean to upset you."

"I used to live here. A long time ago." Yami's darkened gaze wandered the room, but Yugi had a feeling the vampire was seeing something far different from the modern furnishings and décor. "My family and I built this house."

"Your family?" If Yami wanted to talk about it, Yugi wasn't going to discourage him. Maybe the other man needed to let out some of the emotions he'd been carrying around inside him for so long. Yugi could offer a sympathetic ear. "Were you married?"

"No. It was me and my siblings, seven of us in all. Six brothers and one sister." His mouth quirked. "She used to say we would drive her crazy, all of us men."

"What happened?"

The hint of a smile vanished as if it had never been. "There was a terrible storm, practically biblical in proportion. In the midst of what sounded like the end of the world, someone knocked on our door, seeking shelter. I invited him in."

Dark eyes rose to meet Yugi's gaze, and in them he could see that it _had_ been the end of the world, the end of the world as Yami knew it. "He was a vampire?"

"Yes. He killed them all and tried to kill me. He nearly succeeded. I tried to fight him off, but vampires are impossibly strong and this one had just gorged himself on my siblings' blood. Finally, I managed to shove a burning stick from the fire through his heart, but he had already bitten me several times. I fell unconscious almost before he had turned to ash." Yami's hands clenched, and he turned away again. His voice dropped to a whisper. "I must have swallowed some of his blood during the struggle. When I awoke, I had Changed. I've been like this ever since."

Yugi's heart ached at the thought of losing his entire family as Yami had, and being forced to go on, endless days stretching into endless years (centuries!) with that loss haunting him, drawing him back to the place it had happened, year after year after year.

"You come here to remember them."

"For a long time, I came here to punish myself for surviving. For living, even in this twisted form, while they died." Yami shook his head, an ironic smirk forming. "Eventually, I realized what a dick I was being, so I stopped. Now, I come to remember them, to honor the life we shared."

Unexpectedly, Yugi found himself fighting a smirk of his own. "Did you just call yourself a 'dick'?"

The vampire shrugged and didn't deny it.

If nothing else, Yugi kind of had to admire a guy who could be that honest about his own assholery. "Does the professor know? About who and... what... you really are?"

"What, devastatingly handsome and charming?" The smirk became a wicked grin. "Yes. He's known the truth for a long time. We were... very close, when he was younger."

It crossed Yugi's mind to wish that Professor Hawkins had warned him about the true nature of his "favorite guest," but Yugi understood that to do so would have meant betraying Yami's confidence. Pushing the useless thought away, Yugi returned to his questioning. "Do you have a reflection?"

Yami glanced down at himself, as if expecting to find his appearance had altered in the last five seconds. His brow wrinkled. "What? Do I not appear solid to you?"

"Yes, but--"

"Solid objects cast reflections, Yugi."

"Yes, but solid objects also cast _shadows_ and, as far as I've been able to tell, _you_ _don't_."

The vampire had the grace to look the tiniest bit sheepish. "Okay, I'll grant you that one."

Yugi pinched the bridge of his nose and forced himself to breathe slowly and deeply for a moment. Honestly, couldn't the man just answer a simple question without making Yugi work for it? " _Why_ don't you have a shadow, Yami?"

"Oh, I have lots of shadows. They just don't like to get very far away from me."

For a long moment, Yugi could do nothing but gape at the other man. "As individual words, I understood everything you just said. Taken all together? Not so much."

Yami looked as if he was trying to find a way to explain. A variety of expressions flashed over his features, finally culminating in something that resembled resignation. He reached into his jeans pocket and, to Yugi's astonishment, pulled out a folded jack knife. Before Yugi could ask what he intended to do with the knife, Yami had flicked it open and sliced open his palm.

" _What the hell are you doing_?"

"Just watch." Yami held his hand out to display the cut. Dark blood seeped from the shallow wound.

In fact - Yugi's brow furrowed - should blood even be that color? It wasn't simply dark, it was _black_. He tore his gaze away from the chromatically unlikely blood and met Yami's eyes. "What the...? Why is it like that?"

"My shadows."

" _What_?"

"My body is filled with shadows, little pieces of living darkness. They're what keep me this way."

The "shadows" made him a vampire? "Do all vampires have 'shadows'?"

"Yes."

"How-?"

"How does it work? Damned if I know. It just--" Yami waved his uninjured hand as if the gesture could conjure words from the ether. "--does."

Yami glanced down, drawing Yugi's attention back to the cut in Yami's palm. As Yugi watched, the black blood was drawn back into the wound. A moment later, the cut had healed, not even a scar remaining behind to mark where it had been.

"Well." Yugi's voice sounded flat to his own ears. It was just too much to take in. "That must come in handy."

"It's been known to, yes."

Yugi decided not to ask. A sudden, jaw-wrenching yawn reminded him that it had been a long day. Not even the caffeine he had consumed was going to keep him awake much longer. "Will you be okay if I head off to bed?"

"Of course. Get some rest. I'll keep watch until dawn, just in case."

-o0o-

True to his word, Yami remained on watch until he felt the weight of the rising sun pressing down on him. As the sun rose, he retreated to the room specially prepared for him, with heavy black-out curtains covering the windows. Already sinking into sleep as his head touched the pillow, he heard Yugi stirring in the room down the hall. His last thought as he drifted into dreams was that he hoped the human stayed safe until night fell and Yami could be there to protect him.


	8. Chapter 8

After dressing warmly in layers and making certain he had his pepper spray on its cord around his neck (just in case), Yugi took his coffee out onto the porch and checked out the results of the previous night's storm. Fresh snow covered everything in sight, frosting the trees and the roof of the barn like a giant's gingerbread house. He set out to clear the porch, the front steps, and the walkway leading up to the house, since he was expecting several new guests today and had to prepare for their arrival.

He had forgotten to ask Yami if the "welcome" mat or the sign beside the door could be construed as an invitation (it had worked that way in _'Salem's Lot,_ after all). Just to be on the safe side, he took both mat and sign inside, and stored them in the hall closet. He freshened up the empty guestrooms, tidied the rest of the house, and finally sat down to a well-earned bowl of hot oatmeal and a second cup of coffee.

He hadn't even swallowed the first bite of oatmeal before the telephone rang. With a sigh, Yugi pushed his breakfast aside and went to grab the handset off the base. "Hello?"

The line went dead.

He slammed the phone back onto the base, before thinking better of it and dialing the sheriff's office. The deputy he spoke to assured him they would have someone at the B&B by lunch time to investigate the property damage and take his statement. After he hung up, he debated the wisdom of also reporting the attack on Yami, finally deciding it would be best to respect the vampire's wishes and say nothing.

Yugi patted his pocket, making sure he had his phone and the taser he had retrieved from the lock-box in the professor's hidden room. Anyone attacking him was in for a shock, literally. After everything that had happened in Domino, he believed in being prepared. Yugi didn't like to fight, but he liked being a victim even less. He was going to do whatever it took to protect himself, Yami, the guests, and the B&B.

As promised, a deputy showed up before lunch (thankfully, before any new guests had arrived), and Yugi took her out to the barn to show her the damage from the attempted arson. She took pictures of the vandalism and filled out a report. Yugi told her as much as he could about what had happened, leaving out only the vampire involvement.

The distinctive four-wheel drive sheriff's vehicle had been gone less than thirty minutes when the first of the new guests pulled into the driveway. Reminding himself not to invite them inside, Yugi went to greet the new arrivals.

-o0o-

By late afternoon, Yugi had accomplished all of the tasks he'd set for himself. Which was a good thing, as the sky had darkened again with a dense layer of clouds that turned day to a kind of pseudo-night and more snow had begun drifting down in huge feathery flakes, like the aftermath of a celestial pillow fight. Despite the threat of a fresh storm, most of the newly arrived guests had ventured out so that Yugi was left to his own devices. He cast a speculative glance out the kitchen window, noting the leaden clouds and found himself wondering if the absence of sunlight might mean an early awakening for the vampire asleep upstairs. As soon as the idea formed, he chided himself for it. What was he thinking? Yes, Yami Hunter was intriguing and surprisingly handsome, but he was also a member of a completely different species. Human plus vampire didn't sound like an equation that could equal anything but trouble.

Deciding he needed a distraction, Yugi opened the golden box he'd brought down from his bedroom and spilled the metal puzzle pieces onto the kitchen table. He sorted though the pieces, fingers deft as they assembled the parts of the puzzle he had already figured out. Lost in the challenge of finding new shapes to fit into the growing whole, he didn't hear the car pull into the drive and only became aware that someone had arrived when the doorbell rang.

Yugi hastily set aside the puzzle and scurried to answer the door. "Sorry to keep you waiting. I didn't hear a car."

He assumed the newcomer had arrived by cab, since there was no vehicle in sight. The guest was a tall, athletic-looking man with a fashionably scruffy appearance, including stubble along his pugnacious jaw, shoulder-length blond hair beneath a red-white-and-blue bandanna, and dark Ray-bans. He turned an easy smile on Yugi and, hefting his single bag, waved away the apology. "No sweat. It was a long trip, though, so if you could show me to my room so I can crash, that'd be great."

"Sure, no problem." Yugi opened the door and stepped aside to let him in. "Come in and let's get you registered, then I'll show you to your room."

Formalities taken care of and guest (who signed the register "Keith Howard") stowed away, Yugi returned to the kitchen and his contemplation of the puzzle. That he'd gotten lost again in the Zen-like meditation of puzzle-solving became clear when a hand descended on his shoulder and nearly made him leap out of his skin.

Yugi yelped and jerked, nearly falling out of his chair and scattering puzzle pieces across the table. He twisted around to find Keith standing behind him.

"Sorry!" Keith smirked and raised both hands, backing a few steps out of Yugi's personal space. "Didn't mean to scare ya, man. But you didn't hear me when I called out."

Heart pounding like it wanted to hammer its way through his ribcage, Yugi had to take a second to catch his breath before he could respond. "Guess I'm a little jumpy." He sucked in a steadying lungful of air. "Did you need something?"

Keith glanced around the kitchen. "Some coffee'd be great."

There was a hospitality cart complete with Mr. Coffee set up in the communal lounge, but Yugi refrained from reminding Keith that he'd pointed it out on the way upstairs. Instead, he rose and went to get a mug down from the cabinet. Maybe the guy just wanted some company. "Cream? Sugar?"

Keith declined both. He took the mug from Yugi and propped his hips against one of the counters. He'd discarded his bandanna but still wore the sunglasses, though they were low enough on his nose to reveal faded-blue eyes, and he peered over the black frames at Yugi. "So, it's just the two of us?"

"Huh?" Already on edge thanks to his earlier fright, Yugi tensed at the question. "What do you mean?"

"The house seems awfully quiet." Keith shrugged. "I just assumed we're alone."

Alarm bells went off in Yugi's hind-brain. "No! I mean, _no_. We're not. Alone, that is. We're _definitely_ not alone. There's another guest upstairs right now."

"Yeah?" Keith's head cocked as if he were listening. "You sure? It's awfully quiet."

"He's sleeping." Yugi's voice was firm. He stood and edged away from the table, intending to put it between him and the bulkier man.

Before he'd taken more than a single step, Keith flashed across the room and pinned Yugi to the table. The larger man's eyes bled from blue to crimson as Yugi stared, stunned at the speed with which Keith moved. Keith grinned, parting his lips to reveal a set of wicked fangs.

 _Crap!_ Yugi fumbled for the pepper spray on its cord around his neck.

"Ooh, a feisty one." Keith sneered and swatted the canister from Yugi's grip. He ripped the cord away, ignoring Yugi's yelp of pain as it burned the back of his neck, and tossed the pepper spray across the kitchen to clatter into the sink. The fingers of Keith's other hand dug into Yugi's arm hard enough to bruise. "I don't really dig 'feisty', so I suggest you cooperate, if y'know what's good for ya."

Holding Yugi immobile, Keith leaned down and scraped his teeth across Yugi's skin, not exactly biting but hard enough to draw blood.

Shaking with fear and anger, Yugi managed to dig a hand into his pocket for the taser he'd placed there that morning (the same taser he'd retrieved from the professor's secret room), and then shoved it into Keith's side and jabbed the trigger.

The zap didn't appear to do any real damage but it startled Keith enough to allow Yugi to tear free of his grip. Stumbling over his own feet, Yugi staggered as far as the center island before Keith caught him again. The vampire slammed into his back, forcing Yugi face-down onto the counter top.

"That wasn't smart, blood bag." Keith snarled, his weight crushing Yugi, his steel-strong fingers digging into Yugi's scalp and forcing his head back at a painful angle. "Now, you're gonna pay, you little bastard."

One of Yugi's frantically scrabbling hands knocked over the wooden knife block. He made a blind grab, felt the hilt of a butcher's knife beneath his fingertips. Snatching up the knife, he twisted enough to slash at the hands pinning him down. Keith cursed, jerking his bloodied hands away and easing his weight on Yugi's body enough for the human to swing the knife at him. Yugi stabbed the blade with all his strength into the vampire's chest. Roaring with rage, Keith staggered back.

Yugi bolted for the stairs.

Another roar followed him from the kitchen. The terrifying sound spurred Yugi to greater speed. At the top of the stairs, he risked a quick look back. Keith stood on the first step, his chest covered in blood, his face a mask of fury.

"I'm gonna rip your fuckin' throat out!"

Shit! Yugi turned--

\--and plowed face-first into a brick wall that hadn't been there a second before. Stunned, he blinked up at the most welcome sight he'd seen today. "Yami!"

"Oh, goody," Keith drawled from the foot of the stairs. "Just the vampire I wanted to see. Hang on a sec, will ya? I'll deal with you after I eat your little friend."

Yami _growled_. It sounded like a pissed-off lion. When he shoved Yugi behind him, the human didn't protest. It made sense to let one vampire deal with another.

"Lay a finger on him and your friends will be calling you 'stumpy'," Yami snarled.

"Ha, ha. Very funny." Keith's red eyes narrowed. "Didn't think you liked humans, Hunter."

"I like _this_ human a hell of a lot more than I like _you_. Why are you here?"

"You know why."

Yami snorted. "I'm not joining your merry band of anti-Pegasus idiots."

"Didn't think you would, but the boss insisted we ask." Keith shifted into a crouch, teeth bared in a shark's grin. "You know what they say, though. If you ain't with us, you're against us."

"I'm not on anyone's side but my own."

Keith laughed. "You think that's better? A rogue vamp's nobody's idea of a good time. It's the one thing our side agrees on with Pegasus. So, you either pick a side or you die."

"I warn you-" Yami stalked forward a step. "-if I choose, it won't be in your master's favor."

"Guess you get to die, then." Keith laughed. "Master Malik will be _so_ pleased."

He lunged at Yami.

Yugi cringed. He half-expected Yami to smash the banister and use it as a stake to impale the charging vampire. Instead, Yami thrust out his hand and snarled something in a language that sounded like nothing Yugi had ever heard.

The effect was immediate and astounding. Keith froze, mid-lunge. His mouth worked as if he were trying to speak, but all that emerged was black, bubbling foam. The stain on his shirt where Yugi had stabbed him grew darker and began to spread. Blood (and something else, something _darker_ ) poured from the re-opened wound. A black substance writhed in the air between Keith's body and Yami's outstretched hand. Yami repeated his command, his voice impatient, and the mass of ... shadows?... responded, boiling from Keith's chest, from his mouth, from his nose and ears and eyes.

Sounding as if he were being shredded from the inside, Keith screamed.


	9. Chapter 9

Shadows streamed from Keith's body like rats deserting a sinking ship.

Biting his lip to hold back a cry of his own, Yugi stumbled back to the wall behind him. He didn't know exactly what he was seeing, only that it terrified him. The shadows swooped toward Yami, who hadn't shifted his pose. Black and purple, like some kind of negative lightning, the dark streamers danced in apparent joy as they surrounded Yami in a nimbus of darkness. He allowed it for a few seconds before murmuring again in that strange language. His halo of shadows gave a final swirl and then was absorbed into his body, leaving behind a burning afterimage on Yugi's retinas.

The adrenaline rush made him lightheaded. Yugi's breath came in sharp gasps, and his entire body felt as if he'd grabbed a fistful of lightning. He didn't know whether to pass out or throw up. He settled for demanding, between pants, " _What_... the _hell_... was _that_?"

"Long story."

Oh, no. Oh, _fuck_ no. Yami wasn't getting away with _that_ again. Yugi crossed his arms over his chest, narrowed his eyes, and glared. "I'll clear my schedule."

Yami made a derisive noise in his throat. "Maybe I should clear the stairs first."

"What are you--?" Stepping up beside Yami, Yugi instantly spotted what the other man was talking about. What was left of Keith -- a shriveled, desiccated husk that resembled an ancient mummy - lay crumpled at the foot of the staircase. Oh. _Yuck_. "...Point taken."

The weak exclamation of disgust startled a laugh out of Yami, who finally turned to look at him. Instantly, Yami's expression darkened, his brows drawing together as his gaze sought Yugi's neck. "You're bleeding."

"Huh?" Yugi's hand flew to his neck, encountering wet stickiness. Oh, yeah. He'd forgotten that Keith had drawn blood. "That asshole tried to bite me."

"I went too easy on him." Yami growled. The sound raised the hairs on the back of Yugi's neck. Oddly enough, it also stirred another (significantly lower) part of his anatomy, though Yugi chose to put that reaction down to leftover adrenaline. "I should have made him suffer."

Which brought them back to Yugi's first question. "What _did_ you do to him?"

"Took away his Shadows."

This time, Yugi heard the capital letter. "Huh? What do you-?"

The question dried up on his tongue when Yami reached for him and trailed a gentle finger along the raw scrapes Keith's teeth had left on his neck. An unexpected burst of arousal shot through Yugi's body, shocking a fresh gasp from his lips. The sound seemed to bring Yami back to his senses. He blinked and pulled away, wiping his bloody hand on his jeans. His nostrils flared. He took one slow step backward, then another.

It suddenly occurred to Yugi that he was bleeding while standing in a confined space with a vampire who was no doubt just as jazzed on adrenaline (or the undead equivalent) as Yugi, and that this was probably _not_ a Good Thing, at least not where his long-term survival prospects were concerned. He darted a quick look around, assessing his escape options.

" _Don't_."

The sharp command snapped Yugi's attention back to Yami. Yugi swallowed, trying to find enough saliva to croak, "What?"

" _Don't run_." The vampire sounded strained. "I don't want to hurt you, but _I'm a predator_. If you run, I _will_ chase you." The implied ' _and catch you_ ' hung between them. "It's instinctive."

"...Right." The word came out as a breathless whisper. Yugi licked his dry lips and fought his own instincts, honed by years of evading playground bullies, which were screaming at him to run away as fast as his deplorably short legs could carry him. He swallowed hard. "No running. Got it."

"Good." Yami's tone was grim. He took another halting step, this one bringing him closer rather than taking him further away.

"What are you doing?" Despite the danger of the situation, Yugi felt his cheeks flush when his voice squeaked.

Yami's hand cupped Yugi's cheek and Yugi forgot how to breathe, much less speak. For a moment, all he could do was _feel_ the silken caress of Yami's skin on his, the jackhammer rhythm of his own heart, so strong he could feel it causing him to sway. He froze while Yami lowered his head until the vampire was nuzzling Yugi's jaw. And then deliciously cool lips brushed Yugi's skin, and that velvet tongue laved Yugi's throat right over his thundering pulse.

Realization rocked Yugi to his core. Yami was lapping the blood from the scrapes Keith's fangs had left behind. Despite the obvious danger, the sensation of Yami's tongue teasing his skin drew a soft groan from Yugi's throat. For a second, Yugi felt the prick of Yami's extended fangs. Then he was standing alone in the hallway, not even the insta-mummy remaining behind to keep him company.

Yugi allowed himself a second to sag against the wall before forcing his legs to support him long enough to carry him across the hall and into the bathroom. Digging first-aid supplies out of the cupboard, he dealt with the wound on his neck. Between cleaning and bandaging, he had a small freak-out, leaning over the sink and hyperventilating while he wondered if he'd lost his mind. What the hell had he been thinking? He might as well have sliced open a vein and offered himself up as an all-you-can-eat buffet.

He glared at his reflection in the mirror over the sink. "Are you nuts? You pick _now_ to decide to find growly alpha males attractive?"

He'd never noticed this particular kink before, but now that he'd been forced to acknowledge it, he was finding it hard to ignore. Particularly when his reflection was staring back at him with eyes made dark by desire and he could still feel the unexpected affects of Yami's attentions straining against the zipper of his jeans.

Leaning forward until his forehead rested against the cool surface of the mirror, Yugi groaned. "I've completely lost my mind."

"Well, you _are_ talking to yourself. That's generally considered one of the warning signs," agreed a deep voice from the hallway.

Yugi jumped. Gritting his teeth, he yanked open the bathroom door and snapped, "Stop sneaking up on me!"

"Stop not paying attention to your surroundings," Yami countered.

"I pay attention."

"Really? Then why in the _hell_ did you invite a hostile vampire into the house?"

There was no good answer to that, so Yugi deflated. "I don't know how that happened. I don't remember issuing an invitation. And it was broad daylight! Vampires should have the decency not to come out before sunset."

Yami cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Present company excepted."

Yami's dark eyes focused on Yugi's neck for a fleeting instant. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Despite his current aggravation with himself over his newly revealed desires, Yugi hadn't forgotten who had stepped between him and Keith. "You saved my life, after all."

"You saved mine first."

"Guess we're even. Provided-" And Yugi jabbed his index finger into Yami's chest. "-that you stop giving me heart palpitations by sneaking up on me." He tried not to think about the other ways the vampire was making his pulse race.

The merest hint of a smile twitched at Yami's lips. "I'll try."

"Great. Now, get out of my way. There's a bottle of brandy downstairs shouting my name."

"I thought you didn't like brandy." Hands shoved in his pockets, Yami sauntered after him, down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"I _hate_ brandy. What I _like_ is the idea of being too drunk to remember anything that just happened."

"What about your other guests?"

Well, _crap_. So much for that idea. Yugi's shoulders slumped. Instead of bee-lining for the booze, he slunk over to the table and dropped onto one of the straight-backed chairs. "Damn it."

"Sorry."

"No, no. You're right. Guests before therapeutic, alcohol-induced amnesia." That was Yugi's new mantra. Damn it, being a responsible adult _sucked_. "But, if I have to deal with this mess while sober, I want some answers."

He heard Yami sigh.

"I suppose I owe you that much." Yami pulled out a chair and settled across from Yugi. Even sitting casually, there was something almost regal about him. "What do you want to kn--"

Yami fell abruptly silent. Following his gaze, Yugi saw that he was staring at the bits of the puzzle strewn over the table top. As if mesmerized, Yami reached for one of the pieces. He turned it over between his fingers, studying it for a long moment, before raising his gaze to meet Yugi's and demanding, "Where did you get this?"

Surprised by the other man's intensity, it took Yugi several seconds to respond. Fury darkened Yami's eyes to almost black, and he flung the metal piece back onto the table.

"How do you have this? _Where did you get it_?"

"My grandpa gave it to me." Yugi scrambled to his feet. This time, he managed to get the table between him and the angry vampire. "Why do you care? It's just an old puzzle!"

"' _Just an_ _old puzzle_ '?"

Yami's eyes flashed and, for a second, Yugi was sure the vampire was going to lunge at him. The muscles in Yami's jaw and neck tensed as he visibly struggled to regain control of his fury. Yugi's pulse pounded in his ears. He watched Yami force himself to unclench his fists and sit back down, making himself as nonthreatening as possible.

"Forgive my outburst, Yugi. I am... not quite myself." Yami scrubbed one hand over his face. As if talking to himself, he added, "Or, perhaps, I am a bit _too much_ myself."

"Yeah, _that_ makes sense and doesn't sound crazy _at all_." Yugi made no effort to mitigate his caustic tone. "Now, explain it again, using Earth logic. And, while you're at it, tell me what the hell you did to Keith and why seeing this-" He waved a hand at the puzzle. "-turned you into Mr. Hyde."

"As I said before, it's a long story."

"Then you'd better start talking."

Staring at the scattered puzzle pieces, Yami was silent for so long it seemed as if he'd forgotten Yugi was there. But Yami finally nodded to himself and rose. He gathered up the pieces of the puzzle and placed them carefully in their golden box. He offered the box to Yugi.

"It really is a long story. I suggest we take this somewhere more comfortable." Without waiting for an answer, Yami pivoted and stalked from the room.

Clutching the box to his chest, Yugi hurried after him. Yami hesitated in the central hallway, casting a glance at the living room and then shaking his head. Yugi could almost hear the thoughts running through the vampire's mind. The living room was too public; they might be interrupted by an arriving guest. He looked at the staircase and then back at Yugi, who nodded. Soon, they were settling into the pair of wingback chairs before the fireplace in Yami's bedroom.

Taking a deep breath, Yami met Yugi's eyes squarely. "Everything I told you before, about myself, my past... It was all a lie."


	10. Chapter 10

"Everything I told you before, about myself, my past... It was all a lie." As Yami watched hurt and betrayal bloom on Yugi's face, it occurred to him that he could have phrased his revelation better. He hastened to add, "At the time I told you, I didn't _know_ I was lying. I believed my false memories to be true. I have never lied to you on purpose."

"False memories?" Yugi gave him a skeptical look.

"I know it sounds contrived--"

"It sounds like bullshit." Oh, yeah. There was some anger in there too, under the hurt. Visibly keeping his temper in check, Yugi sighed and said, "But I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt long enough to hear what you have to say for yourself."

Yami forced down his own instinctive ire. Given what he had just confessed, the human had every reason to doubt him. That didn't mean Yami had to be happy with the idea of Yugi not deeming him worthy of trust. Added to that was the fact that Yami was still adjusting to his true memories (his true _self_ ) and hadn't quite assimilated it all. It was making him a tad... touchy. Well. _Touchier_.

He narrowed his eyes as he contemplated his jumbled thoughts. Along with the clamoring of the awakened and newly recovered Shadows in his veins, his resurfacing memories were giving him a headache. Feeling more out of sorts (and out of his depth) than he'd felt in centuries, he gave Yugi a helpless shrug. "I'm not sure where to begin."

"I'd say 'the beginning' but I'm not sure I have that much patience right now." Yugi clenched his hands around the Puzzle's box and blew out a loud breath. He squinted at Yami. "Is 'Yami Hunter' even your real name?"

"Legally? Yes. Now. It's not the one I had when I was still human."

"I... guess that makes sense. You've probably had to change your identity more than once over the years."

"A few times, yes." Yami resisted the urge to roll his eyes at his own understatement.

"So, what was your, uh, human name?"

"I can't tell you."

Yugi shot him a dirty look.

"No, I literally _can't_ tell you. I gave up my name to bind the Shadows. I can't tell you my true name because I am no longer permitted to know it. It's part of the magic."

" _Magic_?" Yugi scoffed. "You really expect me to believe that?"

"I'm a _vampire_. You saw what I did to Keith, _another_ vampire. You saw the _Shadows_. Are you telling me, after seeing all that, you can't accept that magic exists?"

"Good point." Looking down at his lap, Yugi rubbed his fingers over the raised hieroglyphs on box he held. When he looked up again, he seemed to have put away, for now, the question of the existence of magic. "It must be awful, not knowing your own name."

"I thought I _did_ know it. I don't think the reality of how much I'd lost has fully sunken in." Yami clenched his fists, then immediately forced them to relax. The Shadows were too close to the surface; he couldn't risk losing his control. "It will probably hit me later."

Along with a lot of other emotional baggage that he was only starting to unpack, like the truth about the full burden he had chosen to shoulder so long ago. "I may not recall what they were, but I know that I changed names even when I was human. After my coronation, I took on many new names and titles--"

"Coronation?" Yugi stared at him. "You were a _king_?"

"I did warn you that it was a long story." Yami hated the defensiveness in his own voice. While, technically, this was all his own doing, he hadn't _set out_ to lie to Yugi, it had just sort of ...happened. The false memories were convincing, as they were supposed to be. At the time he had told Yugi of his past, Yami had believed every word he was saying.

"Okay, let me see if I've got this straight." Yugi began ticking points off on his fingers. "You're a vampire. Magic is real and you can use it. You aren't allowed to remember your own name. You were the king of--" He paused, raising his eyebrows. "King of _where_ , exactly?"

"Egypt."

"You were a _pharaoh_?" Yugi's eyes widened, then narrowed as he searched Yami's face. "Just how old _are_ you?"

"Old enough to have been a pharaoh."

"Right." The human slumped lower in his chair. "I'm just-- This is a helluva lot to process."

"For both of us. Don't forget, up until a few minutes ago, I believed the story I told you. Everything I said about myself, my family... I genuinely thought it was the truth." In many ways, Yami wished that it were the truth; it was better by far than the reality.

Cocking his head, Yugi studied him closely. "What brought your real memories back?"

"The Shadows I took from Keith. They broke the spell on my memory." At the ' _are you crazy?'_ expression Yugi turned on him, Yami expelled a humorless laugh. "You wanted the whole story."

"Don't remind me." Slumping in his seat again, Yugi said, "That thing you did, pulling the, uh, 'Shadows' from Keith... Can all vampires do that?"

"No."

"So, none of _them_ can do that to _you_?"

The genuine worry he saw in Yugi's eyes touched Yami, and he found himself explaining more than he had intended.

"No. Even if another vampire learned of my... ability, the magic which binds the Shadows to me wouldn't allow someone to remove my Shadows." At least, not without something to augment the power of the vampire attempting that feat, something like... a powerful magical amulet.

Yami's gaze strayed toward the box holding the pieces of a _very_ powerful magical amulet, and a shiver etched itself into the skin along his spine. He consoled himself with the thought that the Puzzle was incomplete –- and even it alone probably would not be enough to sever the ties binding him and the Shadows. He could feel the Shadows he had taken from Keith, feel their utter joy at once more being a part of him. They had imparted to him all their knowledge of the one who had contained them in their time apart, and Yami now knew as much as Keith had about Malik Ishtar, Pegasus' rival for the vampire throne. This new information only added to Yami's overall irritation at vampire society in general and his own specific place in it in particular.

Yugi worried at his bottom lip. "So, what exactly _did_ you do to Keith, anyway?"

"I took back his Shadows."

"Took them _back_?" If Yugi's eyes got any larger, they would stage a hostile takeover of his face.

Yami sighed. A big part of him had been hoping to avoid a full disclosure. "Yes. Took them back. In a way, they came from me in the first place."

"Can we skip the part of the program where I drag the rest of the story out of you bit by painful bit and you just _tell me what's going on_?"

Unable to hold back a smile at the pout on Yugi's face, Yami shook his head. "Okay. But it really is a _long_ story. So, I'm going to give you the Reader's Digest condensed version for now."

"Fine. For now."

"Very well." Yami took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and forced his swirling thoughts into some semblance of order. "It all began a bit over three thousand years ago in Egypt."

"When you say 'long story', you aren't kidding."

"Do you want to hear this or not?"

"Yes, I want to--" Yugi made a choking sound. "Wait a minute. Does this mean that you're _three thousand_ _years old_?"

"Yes."

" _In_ people _years_?"

Yami opened his eyes and glared. "No, in _dog_ years. Of course in 'people' years!"

"Sorry, it's just... Three _thousand_? _Really_?"

" _Yes_."

"Wow. That's... _Wow_."

The vampire bristled. "It's not _that_ big a deal."

"Yeah. Except for the part where it totally _is_."

"Clearly, you are not that interested in hearing the rest of--"

"I am! I'm sorry, I'll stop interrupting." The huge eyes took on a decidedly "puppy dog" cast. "Please?"

"Are you sure? You wouldn't rather tease me about my advanced age?"

"No! I'll listen. Promise!" The puppy eyes ratcheted up a notch. There was even a hint of shimmer over the petal-blue irises.

Yami caved. Damn it, he really was becoming senile. "The kingdom was under attack by -- Never mind, it would take too long to explain. Suffice it to say, the kingdom was under attack. My father and his magician-priests fought, of course, but our enemies were too strong. One of the priests found an ancient ritual to summon the power of the Shadows to the aid of the kingdom. The priests performed the ritual, creating seven amulets of power. Using the amulets, each channeling the power of the Shadows, they protected the kingdom, but they soon found that the Shadows were too powerful for them to control for long.

"Before my father could stop them, the Shadows destroyed an entire village, killing every man, woman, and child. The guilt ate at my father, and he quickly realized that he had to return the Shadows to the place from which he had summoned them. He confronted the Shadows, but, before he could cast the spell to imprison them, they consumed him as they had the villagers. There was nothing left of him, not even a body to entomb.

"After my father's death, I became Pharaoh. I was desperate to stop the Shadows before they destroyed my entire kingdom and spread beyond our borders. By that time, they had grown too strong to be imprisoned by the original spell, if they ever could have been. One of my priests found a spell to bind the Shadows to a single human heart. The Shadows would become a part of that person -- _ka_ , _ba_ , heart, body, shadow, name -- every part of him would form the prison to contain them. He would _become_ the Seal, forever bound to this existence, never permitted to join his ancestors in the afterlife. My priest intended to perform the spell on himself, but I knew I could not condemn another soul to such a fate."

"So, you performed the spell on _yourself_." It wasn't a question.

With a grimace at the memory of what he had done, Yami nodded. "I became the living vessel for the spell's magic. As long as I survive, the Shadows are ultimately bound to me, even those residing in the bodies of other vampires."

"So,you're the only thing preventing the Shadows from going on another rampage like the one that nearly destroyed Egypt?" Yugi appeared stunned.

"I am." The weight of his remembered responsibility sat heavily upon Yami's shoulders. He felt the Shadows stir within him, responding to his churning emotions, and attempted to tamp down his upset. The last thing he needed was for the Shadows to slip their yoke and lash out at Yugi in the mistaken belief that he was the source of Yami's distress.

"Did anyone ever thank you?"

Yami stared at him, confusion pulling his brows into a frown. "For what?"

"Saving the world!"

A soft laugh. "It's never really come up in casual conversation before."

"Well, then... Thank you."

"Yugi..." The sincerity in the human's voice, in his expression, stunned Yami. He swallowed past the lump in his throat and gave another short, self-deprecating laugh. "I only did what had to be done."

After a strained moment in which neither met the other's eyes, Yugi whispered, "Tell me the rest of the story."

So, Yami did. He explained how he and his priests had performed the spell to bind the Shadows to him. How the spell had consumed his priests, destroying them utterly even as it filled him with the very essence of the Shadows and transformed him into the creature that would become known to the modern world as "vampire." Though it pained him to do so, he also revealed how the transformation and the Shadows' presence inside him had driven him mad. How he had inadvertently created others like himself, only to destroy them when their petty feuds angered him -- and then, bereft and lonely, created more, starting the cycle over. And, finally, how he had discovered that the creation of other vampires removed some of the burden from his mind, spreading out the concentration of Shadows and allowing him to regain his sanity.

For a time after Yami stopped speaking, Yugi was silent, absorbing all that Yami had shared with him. Finally, Yugi said, "You were the first vampire."

Yami nodded.

"I'm... not sure I know what to do with that."

Yami snorted. He knew the feeling. With the return of his memories, he now recalled the horror of the early days of his transformation. He remembered the rush of unimaginable power, tempered by the isolation and hunger that came with it, and the darkness that had clawed at his mind. He felt the Shadows within him grow agitated again and hastily shoved those memories away. He looked up to find himself the object of Yugi's scrutiny. "What?"

"If you didn't have your memories, how'd you know you could do that suck-out-the-Shadows thing to Keith?"

"I--" Yami faltered. How _had_ he known how to do that? At the time, it hadn't been a conscious decision. It had been instinctive, as much a part of him as the need for blood or the urge to avoid the sun. Yet he was certain such a thing had never even occurred to him in all the years he had lived with his false history. "I don't know. Since my arrival, I've been having dreams about my past -- my real past."

"So, you were remembering things _before_ Keith showed up?"

"Yes, and I shouldn't have been." Never before had the spell suppressing his true identity failed. Why now? His gaze fell on the golden box Yugi still clutched and suspicion blossomed in his heart. "You've been solving the Puzzle!"

Clearly not understanding the import of the accusation, or the tone in which it was delivered, Yugi blinked at him. "Yeah. So?"

"The magic amulets that can command the Shadows--" Yami gestured to the innocuous-looking box. "That's one of them, the Puzzle of a Thousand Years."

"Are you serious? You mean my grandpa actually bought a genuine magical artifact at an estate sale in Hoboken?"

Estate sale? Yami scowled. It might have been slightly more than three millennia since he had ruled the Two Lands, but he was still Egyptian and the thought of robbers violating his House of Eternity disturbed him more than he cared to admit. He reached across and plucked the box from Yugi's lap. "This should be in my tomb."

"You have a tomb?" Yugi looked rather disturbed himself, though for a different reason. "Why do you have a tomb? You're not dead!"

"No, but I am Pharaoh. Of course I have a tomb."

Yugi scrunched up his face in an expression Yami couldn't help but label "adorable." (He wondered just how badly absorbing Keith's Shadows and recovering his memories had affected him. Judging from his current state of mind, the answer was probably "more than he wanted to admit.")

"Leaving the tomb question for later..." Yugi grimaced, then looked thoughtful. "You know, saving the world's a pretty big deal. How come there's no mention of you on any of the monuments in Egypt?"

"It was a part of the binding spell. It erased all record of my names, even the memory of them from the minds of my people. If any mention of me remains, it would be rather oblique."

Yugi was silent for a moment, before his eyes went wide again. "You!"

"'Me', what?" asked Yami, taken aback.

"You're the Nameless Pharaoh!"

Confused, Yami scowled. "What are you talking about?"

"The Nameless Pharaoh! My grandpa's spent most of his adult life searching for proof that you exist. The reason he's in Egypt right now is that he got a lead on the possible location of your tomb."

Running his hand over the Puzzle's box, Yami considered this. Obviously, _someone_ had found his tomb or his Puzzle would not now be at a B&B in Wyoming. Responding to his agitation, the Shadows writhed in his veins, their layered voices whispering in his mind.

"It just occurred to me..." Yugi said, his voice drawing Yami out of his dark musing. "You're not going to let me tell Grandpa about any of this, are you? I hate to think he's going to spend the rest of his life hunting something you could lead him straight to."

Yami's eyebrows rose to his hairline. "It's not as if I _want_ people traipsing about my House of Eternity. I would prefer no one knew the location of my tomb, not even your grandfather. Until today, even _I_ didn't know where it was."

Yugi huffed. "It's not as if my grandpa's a tomb robber."

Yami's only response was a pointed look at the Puzzle.

"Whoever stole that from your tomb, it wasn't my grandpa! I told you, he bought it _in Hoboken_."

"It's still stolen property."

Yugi got a thoughtful look in his eyes. "I guess you're right. I mean, if it's a genuine antiquity, it really belongs to the government of Egypt, doesn't it?"

"No. It belongs to _me_."

"I think the Ministry of State for Antiquities would disagree with you."

"I think I don't care."

Yami's hand tightened possessively on the box containing the Puzzle. The items from his tomb belonged to _him_ , not to some upstart modern government! His belongings were not objects of curiosity to be displayed for the amusement of the masses; they were _his things_. After all, some of his possessions were powerful amulets containing ancient magic. They belonged with someone who knew their true value, not locked away in glass cases in some museum and - Why was Yugi grinning at him like that? Irritated, Yami snapped, " _What_?"

" _Now_ , I believe you were a pharaoh."

Smart-ass human. Yami rolled his eyes and deliberately assumed his haughtiest demeanor. "I'll have you know I still _am_ Pharaoh. It's not a position you abdicate, even if you're dead. Or Changed. It's simply that my duties have... shifted a bit since my human days."

"Yeah? So, what's that make you now? King of the vampires?"

As if he hadn't been avoiding _that_ job for as long as he could -- and sometimes couldn't -- remember. " _No_."

"No?"

" _No_."

One thing Yami had never desired was to rule the race of beings he had spawned. He gladly left that up to those more power-hungry (and socially oriented) than he. Not only that, but he had often gone to great lengths to ensure that no one remained who could reveal his secret to the others. He was making a leap of faith in trusting Yugi with that knowledge. Technically, as progenitor of an entire supernatural race, he was probably a god, if one wanted to look at it in that light. Personally, Yami didn't.

"If you must give me another title, I suppose that I am... Master of Shadows."

Chewing his lip again, Yugi remained silent for a long second before asking, "What are those 'Shadow' things, anyway? I've never seen anything like them."

Holding his hand out so that Yugi could see it, Yami allowed his Shadows to manifest. Dark tendrils coiled around his wrist and played between his splayed fingers. A couple of strands reached toward Yugi, and Yami called them back with a sharp thought.

"Wow." Yugi leaned closer.

When he stretched out his hand to touch one of the swaying coils, Yami yanked his own hand away before the human could make contact. "Careful. They may appear harmless, but the Shadows can be deadly."

Yugi tore his gaze away from the darkness caressing Yami's fingers long enough to give him a skeptical look. "They don't seem to be hurting _you_."

"They are bound to me. They can't hurt me."

 _Won't_! cried the unified voice of the Shadows within him. Newly awakened and freed from the restraints of the memory suppression spell that had contained them for so long, they clamored for his attention. _Would never hurt you_! Love _you_!

The visible tendrils danced joyously up his arm, attempting to convey their happiness at being reunited with their beloved master. Yami calmed them and called them back to his hand, where he began to absently pet them as if they were a kindle of tiny, midnight-furred kittens. They purred their contentment, strange static-y little sounds at the back of his mind. He only realized what he was doing when Yugi laughed.

"I'm seriously disturbed by how cute that is." Yugi grinned at him and pointed to Yami's hands.

Yami jerked and re-absorbed the Shadows into his body.

"If the other vampires knew who you really are, would they leave you alone?"

If only. Yami shook his head. He hadn't exaggerated when he said that most vampires were attracted to power. Some worshipped it in others, most craved it for themselves. In the beginning, Yami supposed that he had been no different. But his newfound power, combined with the Change and its accompanying hunger for blood, had been so overwhelming that it had left him little more than a feral animal. Years passed in a blur of bloodlust, and cycles of creating and then destroying followers to share his curse.

He stumbled upon salvation by accident. With each new vampire created, the level of Shadows attached directly to his mind lessened. After a time, he found his way back to sanity and some semblance of humanity. With the return of lucidity, he sought out the amulets buried in his tomb and used them to further confine his powers.

It was while visiting his tomb that he discovered the guardians his successor had set into place, a group of _medjai_ apart from the necropolis police who patrolled the Great Place, the desolate valley where kings and princes had been buried for centuries. These particular _medjai_ were dedicated solely to protecting the resting place of a king whose body still walked the earth. Finding one of them, a humble _ka_ priest named Shada, alone on the cliffs above the valley one night, Yami waylaid the man and revealed his identity, then charged him with a special task.

Entrusting the priest with one of the amulets, Yami taught Shada the spells to implant false memories and suppress his true ones. Along with the false memories came a compulsion to return to a predetermined location at a certain time so that the spells could be renewed. The spell also suppressed the ability of the Shadows to communicate with Yami's conscious mind, otherwise, they could have given away the game. Even so, with the nearness of the Puzzle, they had found a way to trouble him with dreams of his true past...

So dedicated was the priest that, when he died, Shada's spirit lingered with the amulets and he continued to meet Yami at the appointed time to renew the spells as his Pharaoh had commanded. The location of their meeting changed along with Yami's new identity, so that his mind would harbor no suspicions and he would follow the implanted compulsion without question.

For more than a century, they had been meeting once a year at the B&B.

Suddenly alert to a potential danger he had not previously considered, Yami straightened and peered around the room. All seemed normal, but he sent out feelers of Shadow, probing the corners. They had been locked into this cycle for millennia, he and Shada, and Yami was not certain that the ghost would understand why they could not continue as they had before. Yami couldn't risk the other amulets falling into the hands of his enemies, and he wasn't willing to risk Yugi's life. Until Yugi was safe and Yami had secured the other amulets, he needed all of his memories (and his powers) intact. Surely Shada would understand the need to alter their usual ritual.

Wouldn't he?


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things get a bit... steamy... this chapter.

"What's wrong?" Yugi turned as he noticed the vampire's abrupt shift in mood. Yami had gone from reasonably relaxed to alert and on guard, his dark eyes searching the mundane (or so Yugi hoped) shadows lurking at the edges of the room. Taking his cue from his companion, Yugi felt his own body tense. "Do you sense someone? Is it another vampire?"

Yami's roving gaze settled on him. Though his body remained taut, his deep voice was calm when said, "No. There's no one there."

"Then what's gotten you so uptight all of a sudden? You're acting like you've seen a ghost."

If possible, Yami's face paled even further. "No. ...Not yet."

"Uh, what?" What was _that_ supposed to mean? Yugi's eyes widened. "Are you _expecting_ to see a ghost?"

"In a manner of speaking."

Holy. _Crap_. Like vampires and magic and living Shadows weren't enough for Yugi to deal with, now Yami had to throw ghosts into the mix? He wasn't sure how much more his poor abused sense of reality could withstand. He narrowed his eyes at the vampire. "You're trying to kill me, you know that? Or drive me nuts. What did I ever do to you?"

Something flickered in Yami's eyes, something that sent an answering shimmer of heat through Yugi's body and left him breathless. What - the - _hell_? He blinked - and found Yami only inches away, cool breath feathering Yugi's chin.

"I don't know." The words were a whisper of breath on Yugi's lips, and Yami's eyes were as dark as his pet Shadows. "But I think I like it."

Yugi trembled with the effort not to jerk away - or to lean in and capture Yami's mouth with his own. He licked his lips and watched the vampire's eyes follow the movement of his tongue.

Yami's lips parted and the tips of his fangs glistened in the light from the table lamp. His gaze traveled from Yugi's mouth to the side of his neck. Yugi's pulse beat against his skin like the wings of a captive hummingbird, and he imagined he felt the phantom caress of Yami's tongue as he laved blood from the scrapes Keith had left. Yugi's hand flew up to his neck, covering the bandage he had placed over the wound, and breaking the spell.

Panting, he sagged back against the arm of the sofa. What - the - _hell_? "What was-?"

Before he could form another word, he was alone on the sofa. Yami, half-way across the room and heading for the door, barely paused long enough to growl out, "I have to hunt," and then he was gone, his departing form little more than a colorful blur to Yugi's eyes.

Yugi stared after the vampire for a long moment before groaning, adjusting his suddenly too-tight jeans, and deciding now would be an excellent time for a shower.

A really _cold_ shower.

Cursing Yami under his breath, Yugi headed upstairs to see if the shower had an "arctic glacier" setting.

-o0o-

Yami darted through the thick copse of trees, intent on finding suitable prey before he gave in to temptation, raced back to the inn, and sank his fangs into Yugi's delectable neck. In his current state, he wasn't sure he would be able to stop before draining the human... or Changing him. At this point, either outcome was unacceptable. Hence the fleeing and the hunting.

Lifting his head, Yami scented the wind, hoping to find the musky aroma of deer. Instead, he smelled fresh-spilled blood.

Human blood.

His Shadows surged to the fore, clamoring for a taste. He snarled, clenching his fists as he fought for control of his body. Freed from the spell which had bound their abilities along with his memories, the Shadows inside him were more powerful (and hungry) than ever. They demanded to be fed.

Driven by the hunger of the Shadows and his own curiosity, Yami turned to follow the scent.

-o0o-

Shivering, Yugi stepped out of the shower and toweled dry as fast as he could. He dressed in fresh jeans and a warm, if gaudy, sweater that had been a gift from Professor Hawkins's granddaughter during her "I've got a crush on Yugi" phase. He eyed the hair-dryer, but his hair's natural tendency to "floof" plus blow-drying wasn't a good combination, so he settled for scrubbing roughly with a towel, a quick finger-combing, and hoping for the best. Then he went downstairs and made hot chocolate with lots of extra marshmallows, just because he could.

Besides, with the day he was having, he figured he deserved a little pampering.

-o0o-

The human Yami had smelled turned out to be one of the recent arrivals, returning from a hike. Somewhere along the way, the man had managed to slice open his hand on a sharp rock, which explained the fresh blood. Seeing that the hiker could make it back on his own, Yami returned to his hunt over the loud internal protests of his Shadows, which pointed out how sweet the man's blood smelled. When that tactic failed, they turned coy, slyly offering the opinion that, if Yami wasn't interested in blood, there was always their more _preferred_ option.

Yami's vision flashed red. He snarled at the insolent Shadows. "Be silent!"

 _But... Master... Think how_ good _it would feel._

He slammed his fist into a sapling, snapping the trunk. The young tree crashed to the ground, showering him in an icy fall of snow and pine needles. "Stop this! Or I will not feed you at all."

Even though it was an empty threat, the Shadows fell silent before his anger. Trepidation pulsing in his veins, Yami stalked through the trees. He pitied the next creature he stumbled upon. The Shadows were hungry and, despite his influence, he knew that, when they fed, they would not be kind.

-o0o-

Several days had passed since the incident with Keith Howard. Yugi wanted to relax, but he'd the learned the hard way not to let his guard down. He spent his waking hours tending to his duties as innkeeper, getting to know Yami as well as the taciturn vampire would allow, and waiting for the other shoe to drop. As the current day drew to a close, Yugi moved about the lower level of the house, tidying up the kitchen and then pausing in the lounge to chat with two guests as they worked on the giant jigsaw puzzle kept there for that purpose.

Eyes heavy-lidded with exhaustion that was more mental than physical, Yugi found it difficult to keep moving. After making certain the doors and windows were secured for the night, he slumped into a chair at the kitchen table and rested his chin on his fist.

 _Just for a minute_ , he thought wearily. _Just a minute, and then I'll go back to playing host_... A whisper of movement behind him made him snap his head around.

"Ha!" He aimed an accusing finger at Yami. "Caught you!"

The vampire gave him a look of such angelic innocence that Yugi was almost surprised not to see fluffy white wings sprouting from his back. Yugi snorted. "Oh, don't give me that look. You know very well you were sneaking up on me again!"

"Would I do such a thing?" All that was missing was the halo.

Another snort. "In a heartbeat - one of mine, not yours. But I've got your number! Another couple of nights of acclimation and you can kiss being Mr. Sneakypants goodbye."

The bemused expression on Yami's face made Yugi wish for a camera.

"Did you just call me _Mr. Sneakypants_?" Incredulity warred with the humor in Yami's voice.

"Sorry. I guess that should be _Pharaoh_ Sneakypants."

Yami visibly fought a losing battle with a combination eyeroll-and-smirk. "You are so weird."

"It's one of my more endearing qualities."

"Yes. It is." This time, the laugh escaped. Yami leaned in and dropped a light kiss on the top of Yugi's head. "What's gotten into you, tonight? You're certainly in a cheeky mood."

Was he? Perhaps so. Yugi just knew that if he let himself remain on-edge much longer he would explode. He wanted to forget all this serious business for a while. Emboldened by the smile on Yami's lips, Yugi reached up and trailed a fingertip down the side of the vampire's neck. Yami rewarded the action with a languid blink and a slow, liquid shiver--and then was across the room so fast that the wind of his passage tossed Yugi's bangs into his eyes. He shoved his hair back and rose to pout at the retreating vampire.

"Um, Yugi... I really don't think--"

Yugi stared at him. Why the sudden about face? Yugi didn't think he'd read the signals wrong, but it had been awhile. Maybe he was out of practice. He frowned. "You don't find me attractive?"

"Is this a trick question?"

"A simple 'yes' or 'no', please." Yugi let his lower lip protrude a bit further as he crossed the room, backing Yami into a literal corner when the vampire continued to retreat. "Well? Which is it? Yes--" He ran the tip of one finger along the column of Yami's throat, tracing his sluggish pulse down to his collarbone. "--Or no?"

Not waiting for an answer, Yugi let his hand caress lower, following the planes of Yami's torso until his fingers rested lightly atop the waistband of the vampire's low-slung jeans. Yami seemed to have stopped breathing. His muscles quivered against Yugi's fingers, skin separated from skin by only a thin layer of cotton. Unable to resist the temptation, Yugi flattened his palm against Yami's taut abdomen.

Yami growled.

The vibration passed through Yugi's hand and shot straight to his groin. His gaze flickered up to meet Yami's. The vampire's pupils had dilated so wide that his eyes were black and the sharp tips of his fangs peeked between his parted lips. Holding that heated gaze, Yugi let his hand dip lower and finally found the answer to his earlier question. He mapped the hard evidence with appreciative fingers and smirked when Yami's breath hissed through his clenched teeth.

"I'd say that was a _firm_ \--" He gave Exhibit A a gentle squeeze that had Yami's eyes rolling back in his head. "--'yes'. Wouldn't you?"

" _Yugi_." Yami groaned, his hips bucking against Yugi's hand even as he was reaching down to force that teasing hand to release him. "You will be the death of one of us and, at this point, I'm not entirely convinced it will be _you_."

A breathless laugh escaped Yugi. (A part of him wondered what the heck he thought he was doing. His libido told that part in no uncertain terms to shut the hell up.) He started to kneel, only to be caught by vice-like hands that lifted him back to his feet.

" _No_." Contradicting his own words, Yami spun them around so that he was pinning Yugi against the wall, his grip almost hard enough to bruise. He leaned in so that his breath teased Yugi's ear, sharp teeth nipping at the lobe. "I've never wanted anyone as much as I want you."

Yugi shivered. His heartbeat pounded in his ears, his skin felt tight and flushed with heat, and he ached with need. His jeans were suddenly far too constricting. "I want you, too."

"Do you?" Yami's lips found Yugi's neck and mouthed a path of kisses along Yugi's fluttering pulse. His fangs scraped lightly over the sensitive skin, sending lightning flashes of heat racing through Yugi's body. "How much do you want me, Yugi?"

Breathless, Yugi arched into the other's body. He reached up, tangling his arms around the vampire's neck, and pulled him closer to hiss, "Take me to bed, and I'll show you _exactly_ how much I want you."

"Yugi--"

"Now, please!" Yugi tried to get even closer, but something was wrong. Yami seemed to be sliding from his grasp, even as Yugi tried to tighten it. His body shuddered, as if some outside force held him in its grip. " _Yami_ \--"

"Yugi!"

With a start, Yugi jerked, nearly tumbling from his chair. He blinked open his eyes and realized that he was still seated in the kitchen and that Yami was standing over him, watching him with a concerned look on his face. "Huh?"

"You were having a nightmare," Yami said, drawing his hand back from Yugi's shoulder, where he had been shaking Yugi awake.

" _Huh_?" That certainly hadn't felt like a nightmare to Yugi. Far from it.

"Well, you were moaning and--"

"Never mind!" Yugi waved off further explanation and quickly changed the subject. He tried not to think about the unsatisfied arousal throbbing through his body or his disappointment that the entire encounter had been all in his imagination. Instead, he went straight to one of the things that had been preying on his mind since Keith's attack on him. "Y'know, I've been thinking--"

"Uh-oh."

"Oh, hush." Yugi nudged the empty chair beside him with his foot, silently inviting Yami to sit. "I'm serious. I've been wondering if any more unfriendly vamps are going to show up."

"Possibly." Yami settled onto the chair with his customary elan. "It would help if you refrained from inviting any more of them into the house."

Like Yugi had done that on purpose. He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, about that. Apparently, tasers and knives have about as much effect on you guys as soap bubbles. So, since I can't do that nifty trick with the Shadows, how do _I_ kill a vampire?"

" _You_ don't."

Yugi huffed. In his opinion, there had been far too much amusement in that easy dismissal. "What if it's an evil vampire that's trying to eat me?"

"Then you yell for me, and _I'll_ come kill the evil vampire _for_ you."

 _Ass_. Yami was acting far more entertained than informational. Yugi persisted. "What if I can't yell? What if I have laryngitis?"

Yami cocked a skeptical eyebrow in his direction. "Are you prone to contracting this ailment at inconvenient intervals?"

Yugi swatted him. "Just answer the question!"

"Fine." The vampire rolled his eyes. Somehow, he made the childish gesture look as elegant as everything else he did. "Sunlight works, but you have to keep the vampire in it long enough for them to burn and age is a factor as to how much sun the individual vamp can withstand. Flame will work, but no vampire is going to stand still long enough for you to set them on fire, and I'm going to assume you don't make a habit of carrying a flame-thrower around in your pocket, anyway."

"Okay, what else? Holy water?"

"Only if the vampire has faith in such things. That goes for other 'holy' items, as well. And by the time you've stopped to ask if he's a believer, he will have drained you, so I wouldn't recommend it."

"Good point. Stake through the heart?"

"A stake through the heart would kill just about anything, I'd think." Yami looked thoughtful. "Except possibly a zombie."

"Don't tell me zombies are real, too!"

"All right."

"... _Zombies_ are real?"

"You told me not to tell you that."

" _Are they_?"

Yami's lips twitched. "No."

Yugi's wide eyes shifted to narrowed slits and he punched Yami in the arm. Hard. "Then why did you even bring them up in the first place?"

The smile broke free, curving Yami's mouth into a languid grin. "Because you're kind of cute when you're freaking out."

"...I hate you."

"No, you don't."

After a moment, Yugi sighed and slumped further down into his chair. "No, I don't. But I probably should."

"Maybe. But you _don't_."

More the fool, he. Yugi scowled inwardly at his own idiocy. A sudden thought occurred to him, and he welcomed the distraction. "Hey, I've been wondering... If the Shadows are what keep you, um, the way you are, why do you need to drink blood?"

Yami slanted a look at him. It was one Yugi had come to know well over the past few days, Yami's "you're lucky I like you" look.

"Blood is necessary to ...fuel... the magic that keeps the Shadows bound to me." He raised a preemptory brow. "The Shadows are appeased by the blood they absorb through me, and the spell ensures that they cannot feed unless it is through me or another vampire."

That, Yugi deduced, meant that the Shadows needed the vampires to survive as much as the vampires needed the Shadows to sustain them in a macabre, symbiotic relationship. "Nothing else works to, uh, 'appease' the Shadows?"

"One thing does." The grim note in Yami's voice warned Yugi not to press the issue.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Yugi pressed anyway. "What's that?"

"Human souls."

Yugi felt his jaw drop and was vaguely surprised not to hear it make a thud as it hit the floor. He blinked, forced his mouth to close, and cleared his throat before managing to squeak, "Oh. Probably best to stick with the blood, then."

"Yes." Yami frowned. "Speaking of which, I should hunt."

"You've been doing that a lot. How often do you need to, uh, eat?"

"It depends on several factors, none of which I want to go into right now. Let's just say that it's safer if I don't allow myself, or the Shadows, to grow too hungry while I'm around humans, and I have a greater, er, volume of Shadows to feed since absorbing the ones that were inside of Keith Howard."

"Is that going to be a problem for you?" Fresh concern for Yami pushed thoughts of his silly fantasy from Yugi's mind. "You said before that too many of the Shadows bound too closely to you... pushed you over the edge."

Yami snorted. "No need for the delicate wording. They drove me insane." He pushed himself to his feet and paced in the small space between the table and the kitchen island. "It's something I'll have to deal with soon, but I can handle it for now."

"'Deal with'?" Yugi rose, stepping into the vampire's path and forcing him to stop pacing. "Do I want to know what that means?"

"Probably not."

Sighing, Yugi said, "Tell me anyway."

　

　


End file.
